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Platt on Conversion…

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From the sermon, The Gospel Demands Radical Giving:

The Gospel Demands Radical Giving – David Platt from Together for Adoption on Vimeo.

At the 8:40 mark on the video, Platt says:

To be a follower of Christ means: To come to an awareness of your sinful rebellion against God and to see in Jesus the only substitute for your sins and by His grace to turn from your rebellion against God and to trust in Him as the Lord and Sovereign King over your life and when that is the case, then what Jesus says determines how you live.

This quote really shows the shallow, nominal way many of us treat our conversion. It really is more than just repeating a prayer after someone and meaning it. Conversion is banking all that we are on Christ.

Shepherding Your Family / Listening Well

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There were a couple of great posts that got my attention this AM:

Brian Croft offers suggestions for how he shepherds his family. This includes, in his case, letting one child stay up 30 minutes longer one night a week to read Scripture, books, and pray with their father. Any encouragement and practicality on this issues seems to be helpful to me.

On DeYoung’s blog, Jason Helopoulos gives some tips on listening well. He pegged me from the outset, speaking of how pastors tend to be assertive and “know where this conversation is headed.” Rather than rushing to give our opinion we should strive to listen by taking the following tips:

* Remember that sermons are for the pulpit

* Remember that the person before you is the person you are to be ministering to

* Be teachable

* Show honor to all

* Silence is golden

* Maintain eye contact

* Ask questions

* Don’t always feel the need to lead

* Don’t be “super-spiritual”

* Think through questions

* Care tenderly

Check out both of these posts and be helped.

Local Church Involvement

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Z quotes Carlos Griego:

Telling people that being part of the local church is optional for the health of the Christian, is like telling a married couple they can replace living together with being friends on Facebook to grow closer and become One as God intends.

Good insight. And as we progress through Colossians, we are seeing that God is at work to renew us as a body in the image of the creator, conforming us to Christ. This new man being renewed is a corporate body of believers as the subsequent commands show. Let’s show Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11) by not treating our involvement in the local church as an optional thing.

To Worship Teams: Are We Growing?

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…so asks Michael Bleecker, pastor for worship at the Village Church in an email he sent to his musicians and vocalists last week. The blog post explores the following:
Are we growing in godliness?
Bleecker urges his team to be godly people at the outset.
Are we growing in preparedness?
In exploring this question, Bleecker urges timeliness in rehearsals, among other things as helping his team be prepared.
Are we growing in our gifting; are we improving?
This section began with a call to improve in ear, timing and creativity, but then branched out in ways that we could improve if we are: vocalists, guitar players, drummers or keyboard players, including lots of links to helpful places on the web.
Are we serving for the right reasons and in the right ministry?
This question’s explanation was filled with much grace as Bleecker urged his team to not be misplaced if God would choose to use them elsewhere, as well as exhorting those who are called to serve to continue sacrificing for the glory of God.

It was really a helpful post. So, read it but better yet, answer the question honestly: are we growing?

Weekend Recap – Jesus, Sin and the Law

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Well, another Sunday has come and gone, by God’s grace.

In the AM, we looked at Colossians 3:8-10 in a sermon entitled Put Away Sin. We saw three truths, specifically, in seeking to deal with sin:
1) We must deal with it urgently
2) Sin makes us look life how we were before Christ
3) Our new self is being renewed by God and conformed to Christ
As we seek to practice this, there is much reason to hope, because of passages like Titus 2:11-14 and the work that God is accomplishing in His children to renew them.

In the PM, springing out of Exodus 20:1-20, we saw how the 10 Commandments really point to Jesus (the sermon’s title was Jesus and the Ten Commandments). Jesus perfectly embodied what God wanted to accomplish in the Law, establishing a people that live for Him. We can’t keep the Law, but in the new covenant, we are changed to be enabled to obey. To put it simply, the 10 Commandments drive us to find our hope in Jesus and the Gospel.

I hope you had a great Lord’s Day. Let’s live out the truth of what we’ve seen.

DeYoung on The Church

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I would highly recommend your listening to Kevin DeYoung’s sermon from Next entitled “The Church.” Here’s a summary from C.J. that came across my feed reader recently:

To close out his Next 2010 conference message, “The Church,” Kevin DeYoung gave a list of suggestions for how to be a difference maker in the local church. He said:

• Find a good local church.
• Get involved.
• Become a member.
• Stay there as long as you can.
• Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
• Join the plodding visionaries.
• Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
• Be patient with your leaders.
• Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
• Bear with those who hurt you.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
• Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
• Volunteer for the nursery.
• Attend the congregational meeting.
• Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
• Invite a friend.
• Take a new couple out for coffee.
• Give to the Christmas offering.
• Sing like you mean it.
• Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
• Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
• Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
• And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).

I cannot recommend this message too highly. Please take time to download and listen to “The Church” by visiting the resource page at thisisnext.org.

I would whole-heartedly agree. Many times when people listen to or give a message on the church, it can seem like a rah-rah message at how people need to do what their pastors say. But this message is very even-handed showing that even weak leaders need followers who are interested in bigger things than their own shallow, capricious ideals. This is the stunning reality we see in Scripture about Jesus’ bride, the church. Listen, be profitable and glorify God.

#3 – 1st Pic

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Meg and I spent yesterday at the doctor’s office and this is the first picture we got of baby #3, tentatively due on February 22nd. We are excited, overwhelmed and experiencing all kinds of marveling at how God has again granted us conception. Please be praying for Meg as she hasn’t been feeling too hot (typical 1st trimester stuff) and for the health of the baby as he/she develops. We were already able to get that heartbeat, a healthy 168 bpm. At any rate, I knew some of you would be interested in the pic.

Killing Sin?…Good…Remember the next verses…

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I hope you were encouraged and moved to action by the Holy Spirit as you heard yesterday’s sermon, Kill Sin, from Colossians 3:5-7. I’ve already gotten some emails from people this morning demonstrating fruit from yesterday’s emphasis. They realize their weakness and want to make headway in pursuing godliness.

It’s so easy, though, to drift into self-righteousness when we are putting our killing sin into practice. How do I know this is a tendency? Because of what comes out of my mouth. Paul must have realized this too, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he continues in Colossians 3:8-10:

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

It is out of the heart that the mouth speaks. And what comes out of our mouth (or emails, twitter feeds, voicemails, blogs) can either demonstrate what we are putting away or putting on. Therefore, as you speak this week, remember to speak in a way that is not full of anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, or lying to one another. These things are incompatible with someone killing sin. But let’s be characterized by speaking truth to one another in ways that build up for edification. This will show that we are putting on the new self and, indeed, being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator. He’s the One we want to live for anyway. Remember this, then, as you seek to put into practice killing sin: put away speaking in a way that’s not helpful.