Our Pastor is one of the speakers at the Desiring God National Conference this September. The theme is “Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged“. Posted below is an interview John Piper had with our Pastor. I hope you are encouraged by their conversation…
link to video is HERE
Category: Mission Comments (0)
I appreciate these two paragraphs on Sin from The Reason for God by Tim Keller:
Everyone gets their identity, their sense of being distinct and valuable, from somewhere or something. Soren Kierkegaard asserts that human begins were made not only to believe in God in some general way, but to love him supremely, center their lives on him above anything else, and build their very identities on him. Anything other than this is sin.
Most people think of sin primarily as “breaking divine rules,” but Kierkegaard knows that the very first of the Ten Commandments is to “have no other gods before me.” So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship with God.
That is a helpful way of evaluating sin in our lives. Just because your life is not spiraling out of control through destructive behaviors such as the tragedy surrounding the death of Amy Winehouse, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re living a life of faith in the Son of God. Too many have understood sin to be the “bad stuff” and have failed to see it as “good stuff” becoming “ultimate stuff”.
Yes, pornography is sin, but so is obsessing over your GPA.
College students must be aware that finding identity and purpose in a certain GPA is as sinful as binge drinking, looking at naked people online, or smoking crystal meth. One set of sins is more obvious, the other is just as sinful, but more socially acceptable. However, both dishonor the God who created us for His glory and both destroy the lives He graciously entrusted to us.
We need to fight against allowing anything other than God’s Word to inform us of our understanding of what grieves Him.
The best way to identify sin is not to size yourself up against one of your classmates, the drunk down the hallway or the sociopathic killer on television. We can always find someone that makes us feel better about ourselves. However, when we start asking probing questions such as…
+What do I love?
+What do I hate?
+What do I put my hope in throughout the day?
+What do I fear?
+What do I tend to worry about?”
…it will begin to uncover some areas where “good things” have become “ultimate things”. Regardless of how others in this world view them, they are still sins that desperately need to be repented of!
Category: Gospel Comments (0)
My wife will attest to the fact that no one…and I mean no one, runs their car out of gas as often as I do.
It goes something like this-
I usually fly into the gas station on 3 wheels, hop out, swipe the card, start pumping gas…at about $15 into this whole ordeal I get impatient, because I am running late and in a hurry. I simply dont have time to pump more gas. So I slam the nozzle back into its place, tighten up my gas cap, literally run around to the driver’s side door, jump in, throw it in drive, and speed away.
No receipt.
Not much gas.
No time to waste.
Just a few dollars worth of gas. And I am off to the races.
About a day or two later I notice my fuel light comes on. To most, that means go get gas. To me, that means I have another day or two worth of fuel.
After another day or two of the gas light blaring at me, I realize that I desperately need to get some fuel, but I believe I am unable to slow down long enough to get more gas. All this in an effort to maintain my insane pace.
And then it happens, usually while I am driving up a hill. My car dies.
Needless to say, there is never any doubt in my own mind that I have ran out of gas. Embarrassed, I call my wife and explain the situation. She gently reminds me that I need to slow down long enough to actually fill up instead of continuously running on E.
Now, what in the world does this have to do with college students “glorifying God by making disciples of all nations”?
Let this sink in…
“Worship is the fuel and goal of the mission.” (Let the Nations Be Glad, 17)
That is so much more than one-line zinger from Piper. That is an essential biblical truth that must be embraced each day of our lives, especially for college students who tend to run at a crazy pace. Greek Life, intramurals, campus ministry, study, occasionally go to class, hang with friends, work the part time job, internships, meet with advisors, and a whole host of other things fill up the already tight schedule for college students.
With this insane pace, college students, all to often, never stop long enough to…Gaze. Stand in awe. Adore. Value. Praise the One Who is infinitely worthy.
In the mad dash to do things…the fuel tank runs dry.
Honestly, I don’t know many Christ-following college students who would say worship is unimportant. But I know many who bust into a time of worship with God somewhat like I do into a gas station, “on 3 wheels”, all the while thinking of the umpteen things they need to be doing, and how they really don’t have time at the moment to fill up. So they leave with a little fuel and a whole lot to do.
Hear me on this- To run out of fuel in your car on the way to a meeting is embarrassing. To run out of fuel in your life while on mission is devastating.
God wired you for worship. He intends to draw a lost world to Himself through a people who are satisfied in Him. Dont get so busy with all that you are doing for Him (even “making disciples of all nations”) that you fail to worship Him!
When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth. (Let the Nations Be Glad, 18)
Category: Uncategorized Comments (0)
I think one of the more critical issues facing college ministers, especially in the South, is the sheer number of “Christian” students who have prayed a prayer, signed a commitment card, been dunked… but still are in a love affair with the world, are cold to the commands of Christ and indifferent to Christ’s Bride, the Church. I bet I have counseled with over 100 college students in my short tenure as College Minister at Brook Hills who were wrestling with the question, “Am I really a Christ-follower?”
Enter Mike McKinley and 9Marks.
Mckinley recently published a book through 9Marks that helps the reader think through the question of salvation.
Mckinley says…
So, in Am I Really a Christian?, I look at five things that the Bible says will always accompany true conversion. If you have these things, you have more firm evidence of God’s regenerating work in your life. If these things are absent, you have reason to be concerned.
Belief in true doctrine. You’re not a Christian just because you like Jesus.
Hatred for sin in your life. You’re not a Christian if you enjoy sin.
Perseverance over time. You’re not a Christian if you don’t persist in the faith.
Love for other people. You’re not a Christian if you don’t have care and concern for other people.
Freedom from love of the world. You’re not a Christian if the things of the world are more valuable to you than God is.
If you know someone for whom this kind of thing would be useful, you can check out a website and some videos at amireallyachristian.com.
Category: College Life, Gospel Comments (1)
How do you know if you are growing in the “grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ“? (2 Peter 3:18)
This is an important question to consider…
Do you determine how many mission trips you’ve been on? Count up the number of times you have engaged in social justice issues? Calculate the hours spent reading the Bible? Realize that you are not participating in the Nasty 3 (don’t drink, don’t chew and don’t date the guys/girls that do)?
How do you diagnose your spiritual health?
I fear many college students answer this question by all they are doing for God. They list out all the activities to prove their Christian growth.
Yes, Christians work. As our Pastor says, “The Gospel that saves us from work saves us to work” (a quote from Radical Together). I don’t want to muddy that water at all. If your walk with Christ is not producing God-honoring work that is fueled by faith in the Son of God, you’ve got serious spiritual problems.
But I want to encourage all of us, especially college students who are engrained with the idea that the more I do the more important I am, to diagnose spiritual health by looking at the heart more than the hands.
Need an example? Ghandi did a lot with his hands, but all evidence points to all of that being for naught due to his cold, dead, sinful heart that was in rebellious unbelief against God.
I think you can fool yourself by looking at your hands. I think I have fooled my own self by looking soley at my hands. But our hearts are always honest indicators of where we are spiritually.
A few weeks back, while at Starbucks a college student that I bumped into gave me an excellent book by Donald Whitney, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. The book offers excellent, heart probing, spiritual x-ray questions that can help us think through our current condition spiritually.
They are…
1. Do you thirst for God?
2. Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
3. Are you more loving?
4. Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?
5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6. Do you delight in the Bride of Christ?
7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?
Notice how much these questions deal with works…not that much! Now, notice how often these questions deal with our motivations that are behind our works…bingo! Actions that honor God are essential, but I have learned in my own life that I can do a ton of things, and my heart be far from God. However, I’m never able to fake my motives behind my actions nor manipulate my affections/desires that flow out of my heart.
So, as you take a look at your own heart, are you growing in the “grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ“? (2 Peter 3:18)
Category: Gospel Comments (0)
Don’t Waste Your Life from Andrew Laparra on Vimeo.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
(Luke 17:33 ESV)
Category: College Life Comments (0)