FreeTruth

I'd like to reflect on 2 sermons I recently heard.

The first sermon (I caught less than 3 minutes of it), was on a TV in a hotel room two Sundays ago. It was preached in what appeared to be a stadium, but I think it was the regular church building. The man who gave the sermon seemed sincere-- He's quite popular... he is "America's Pastor." He assured the worshipers that "God would take them places they never dreamed of going" and that He could "fulfill their wildest dreams." As the camera panned the neatly dressed crowd I saw smiling faces. The crowd was huge! I'm guessing that one Sunday's offering/collection from this place could meet the annual budget of the church I attend. It would seem that the dubbing of this man as "America's Pastor" is an apt one... America's pastor, keeping the "American Dream" alive.

And I heard a sermon yesterday. This man too was sincere. The subject was vastly different, as was the size of the crowd... several empty seats in the sanctuary, and an offering that barely keeps up with (and ocassionaly lags behind) a modest budget. This pastor began his message with a scripture text: "Put to death... Put to death... Put to death therefore what is earthly in you." The crowd wasn't smiling. The pastor then proceeded to step on the proverbial toes of many of us, myself included. He lovingly challenged us toward holiness (without which, no man will see the Lord.)

My take on the two sermons? The first one left me shaking my head in disbelief. Did the Father send the Son, Jesus, to the cross so that my wildest dreams could be fulfilled? And yet, here was a packed stadium hanging on the words of this "pastor." Perhaps a man left there feeling hopeful--- maybe that dream of a million dollar home at the shore wasn't out of reach after all... ?

The other sermon, from this relatively obscure pastor, left me convicted about the sin in my life, and aware of the dangers if I refuse to change course. My particular sin is laziness. I've been aware of it for many years. This morning, however, I was up at 5:30, meeting with the Lord... just as my pastor recommended. I took his warning seriously... I must put laziness to death, and for me, it will be a daily killing.

Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. In the days of Israel false prophets abounded. Remember the cleverly devised set of horns used by Zedekiah to prophesy to Ahab and Jehoshaphat exactly what they wanted to hear (1 Kings 22)? "Thus says the Lord, with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed!" What hopeful words! "And all the prophets prophesied so and said, Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king." This brought a smile to Ahab's face.

But then there was Micaiah, a faithful prophet of the Lord. He never cheered the king's heart. His word did not leave a smile on their face--their "dream" was to triumph in the battle--Micaiah's word was this: "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd."

Thank you pastors of Trinity Fellowship... for speaking the truth in love... so that WE will not be scattered sheep, wandering on the mountains.

Labels: Guest Post, Hearing God's Word, Preaching, Worldliness

As we fight in the cause of God and truth in our generation, one of the places to start is in a recovery of Truth; Truth revealed (in the Bible) and Truth heard (through preaching) and Truth obeyed (in faith and love and obedience).

In my sermon yesterday I called for the church to recover a right view of the Word preached and heard. Really it was a preached version of blog entries from a couple of weeks ago. You can review those if you'd like. For today though--for those who heard my message or for those who heard their own pastor preach can I make one application suggestion? Why don't you schedule time in the next day or two to listen to that message again?

Go online or get the CD and listen carefully. What I'm going to do with my family--and I think this will become a weekly practice--is schedule a 1 to 1 1/2 hour block of time weekly to sit with the family and re-listen to the Sunday AM sermon. During that time we will listen, and stop and discuss various points to make sure that important truth is being understood. This really is not that hard of a thing to do, other than in the fact that it has to break through the routine of lazy sermon listening that has too often marked my life, and of which I am repenting.

Following this we'll finish the time by asking: "What is one application of this sermon that each of us can make to our lives this week?" Thus the process of right listening will begin, and at the same time I as the head of my home will be leading my family deeper into the things of God.

On top of that I'll be equipping them to become life and culture warriors who stand in, and stand for, God's truth.

What do you think? Might it be a place to start?

Labels: Culture War, Hearing God's Word

In our hearing of the Word I've suggested that we need to: prepare (our bodies), pray (for illuminating grace), preview (the text to be preached), posture (our hearts in teachable humility), prove (what has been preached), and possess (making what we've heard our own through note-taking and thoughtful conclusions).

To all these I add a seventh step: personalize or practice (pick your personal p-word preference). God insists that what we hear be applied and obeyed personally. Check out how insistent God is about this: James 1:19-25; Matthew 7:24; 1 Samuel 15:22 (where through Hebrew poetic parallelism, obeying and listening are seen as synonymous). Folks, we have not really heard God unless we are obeying what He says.

There's real danger in hearing preaching, particularly goodpreaching. We can enjoy the preacher's skills and even appreciate the truth-content of his sermon without really being changed by it. This is a very common issue in churches that feel pretty good about themselves for their "faithful" and "sound" preaching.

But it is a profound concern to God as is clear from His words through the prophet Ezekiel:

“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it"(Ezekiel 33:30-32).

Sermons are not like performances to be critiqued or good music to be enjoyed or fine food merely to be tasted. They are God's provision for the soul that needs to be ingested, digested, and then transformed into soul-nourishment for actual faith, real life, and obedient and cheerful godliness.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 God tells us what His Word is profitable for (check it out), and then in 2 Timothy 4: 1-4 He tells pastors to preach that Word faithfully no matter whether their people want to hear it or not.

This 2 Timothy 3 list of benefits to be gained by good preaching of God's Word can be a guide for our personalizing of the Word heard. After you've taken the steps we've mapped out in recent days, conclude your hearing of God's Word by asking yourself these questions:

1. What teaching about God or the gospel or Christ or myself or this world has this sermon presented to me? That is: what have I learned or relearned from this message from God's Word?

2. What reproof has this word from God through preaching brought to me? How has it rebuked or confronted my sin? What conviction over sin has been stirred?

3. What correction has this word brought me? How has the Word preached adjusted my thinking and guided me to a better way of living? How has the Word preached given me a better way to feel or act or live or serve?

4. What training in righteousness has the Word brought to me through this message? How am I now better equipped to worship or rejoice in God or serve or help others or build up the church or share my faith or mortify sin or vivify holiness?

And then to make sure that it doesn't stay theoretical, ask yourself: "What specifically am I going to change (in attitude or action or worship or obedience or service or joy...) this week as a result of what I have heard?

That my friends is true hearing; until we get all the way to change today and this week as a result of the Word preached, we're simply listening to a performance and kidding ourselves.

May God make His Word gloriously transforming for your progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:25).

All for now. God bless you.

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Spiritual disciplines

If you've been following along with our entries of late you know that we've been laying out some reasons for, and some steps to improve in, the hearing of God's Word preached. Tomorrow is Sunday so whoever you are and whatever your church family, I'd encourage some review and application before going into the Lord's Day. Don't keep this theoretical folks; let's make it real.

As you review, let me add just one pointer for today, our 6th overall:

6. Possess. By possess I mean that we need to take steps to make the preaching and the truth of a text our own. This happens of course as we study it, and review and prove it; things we've talked about already. But another way to own or possess what is being taught is to take notes. Record your thoughts, questions, observations, conclusions, joys, and convictions as you hear and then prove what you've heard. While you're listening take some notes, and then when you've finished your proving step, try to put the truths you've learned into your own words.

This process will move you ever closer to an "Aha! I see!" experience of the truth, rather than a hearsay experience of the truth. First-hand experience is always more powerful than second-hand. To hear and see the truth is always better than to hear it only. And writing out your conclusions and the truth learned in your own words helps you to see it for yourself.

Enough for today. Go back and review. Then apply. Then arrive at your place of worship tomorrow expecting to hear the voice of God!

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Spiritual disciplines

I'm back with a couple more application points for the right hearing of the Word of God. One thing to add as I continue: Friend, the matter at hand is as important as about any we can discuss. Life-long practice of these things will determine the growth, sanctification, joy, and consistent revivings of your soul.

God has ordained that the preaching of the Word be the power of God for salvation and godliness (1 Corinthians 1:18-24; James 1:19-21; 1 Timothy 4:13-16). I urge you to read those texts to notice the importance given to preaching. When we come to hear God's Word preached each Lord's Day, we are coming to a means of grace that is "the power of God" which "saves the souls" of those who hear.


With that in view I offer two more how-to-rightly-hear-the-Word application ideas:

4. Posture. Take that as a verb. We need to posture our hearts rightly if we're going to hear God's Word rightly. We're to cultivate teachable and submissive hearing. We ought always to hear God's Word humbly, no matter who is preaching, because the Word faithfully preached is not the word of man but an oracle of God (1 Peter 4:11). Every faithful and accurately preached word is God talking. And (let me just say it because it is true) we must listen with even greater humility as we hear our pastors, since they are in a place of spiritual authority in our lives (Hebrews 13:7, 17).

Look again at James 1:19-21 to see how you should approach preaching, and make sure that as preaching starts you have consciously so postured your heart. James is clear; we are to guard our hearts from hasty, angry, critical reactions to preaching. We're not to argue with the preacher. We're not to come as self-appointed and self-assured critics; we're to come with conscious humility. I'm to do this every time I hear preaching. I'm to do it especially, every time one of my fellow pastors or one of my spiritual leaders is preaching. All of us are. Such humiltiy guarantees God's grace (James 4:6).

5. Prove. This point balances the previous one. Acts 17:11 is one of my favorite Bible verses. True listening involves a testing and proving of what we hear. It requires that we receive and search the Word to see if what we've heard is true. If we are members of a church in which the pastors exhibit proven carefulness in how they handle the Word, there should be a consistent teachable and humble trust when they speak. However, this should never be blind trust, for pastors err. God's Word is inerrant but His messengers are not.

Here are a few hints for the testing and proving of what you hear (BTW--as you practice these, expect to be blessed!):
a. Pray for illumination from the Holy Spirit--to understand what you've been taught.
b. Re-listen. In today's hi-tech world messages can be listened to more than once. There's always more in a Sunday sermon than you can take in in one hearing. Plus people almost always mishear the first time through. A second hearing can help you get what the speaker was really trying to say.
c. Double-check all texts cited. Read each text and its context to make sure it says what the preacher says it says. If you don't see it, ask him about it humbly the next time you see him!
d. Think about the main points of a message in light of what you already know to be true from God's Word to make sure that it agrees with what God has already taught you. At the same time be willing to learn something new so long as it passes the test of God's Word.
e. Embrace the hard work of discernment; it doesn't come easily as Hebrews 5:11-14says.

(By the way: this testing and proving process should sound an important alarm. Beware of listening to or reading more than what you can test and prove. We're better off listening to and testing a few proven messages/messengers (including your pastors and those recommended by them) than to listen to and read more broadly and indiscriminately. As one in my church has put it: she's come to realize that it is better to learn than it is to just listen. Better is one message per week heard, tested and proven than several messages or studies merely heard.)

Enough for today. I'm still very much interested in the hearing helps you all have gained along the way; send in your comments.

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Spiritual disciplines

With the theological pointers of the past couple of days guiding us, I want to offer ideas on the practical matter of application.

I'm assuming that we're agreed that the Bible is the Word of God which should be heard with all diligence and joy, and that many of us have a sincere desire to hear it with eager, believing, submissive ears. So let's think about the right hearing of the Word as it is preached. These thoughts certainly have relevance for hearing God's Word through your reading and study as well, but we'll concentrate on how to get the most out of preaching.

Since I'm going to use six "P" words over the next couple of days, I'd better borrow J.I. Packer's alliteration apology. "Alliteration", he once wrote, is a "preacher’s ploy for pointedness, precision, and perspecuity. Pardonable? Perhaps." Whether or not my appalling alliteration activity is absolutely absolvable I'll allow all you to adjudicate.

To get us started, here are a few thoughts on the right hearing of the Word preached:

1. Preparation. I'm thinking here of preparation of the body. To hear God's Word preached is a physical as well as spiritual challenge. It requires immense powers of concentration and effort. For this reason I'd suggest that as a general rule, we all get to bed early Saturday evenings. I'd also recommend that to bring body and mind to full alert status on Sunday AMs, we eat just enough food and (if we like the stuff) drink just enough coffee to nourish strength and awaken the grey cells. Good rest and a careful amount of healthy food and drink before we worship (for a few reasons we'd prefer this not happen during our worship)can prepare the body to rightly receive the Word.

What other helps have you found for getting your body prepared for worship and hearing God's Word? Please comment!

2. Preview. Since we normally preach through a book of the Bible it's possible to know the next text that is going to be preached ahead of time. And even when a special topic is going to be taught it usually is posted on our website before each Sunday. I'd encourage that hearers read that text and its surrounding context prior to their arrival. Preview can also include a quick review of what was preached the Sunday before to make sure that your mind is up to speed. Previous week's review notes are usually available on the site.

3. Pray. Don't treat this as empty cliche. Treat it as necessary heart prep and a God-moving exercise of grace. Before you leave for worship Sunday morning pray either alone or with your family and ask God to come and bless His church by sending His Spirit to work in power and grace through His Word. And if you can make it to the 9:00AM prayer time that would be wonderful too. In these ways ask God to show you through His Word preached, more of His glory, the gospel, and the true nature of faith and obedience in Jesus. Pray your way into a state of expectation so that as you arrive you are confident that God is going to meet with us and speak to us with the power of His truth.

So there you have a couple of starter ideas. I really am interested to know what you have found helpful for the right hearing of the Word preached? Go ahead and comment so we can carry on a conversation here.

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Spiritual disciplines

On the highest peak of the highest mountain a narrow less-than-an-inch ridge can set the course of rivers. It's called a watershed. If a drop of rain falls to the east of that ridge, it'll flow eastward. If another falls just an inch away on the west side it'll flow westward. In the end they will be thousands of miles apart.

Life is full of watershed moments; moments in which decisive direction determining conclusions and/or choices are made.

How you answer the question "Has God spoken and is the Bible His final Word?" is a watershed. If the Bible is God’s final Word (i.e.-His ultimate authoritative revelation from which all saving truth is to be gained, and by which all truth-claims and opinion/preferences are to be tested), then the course of life is fixed.

If you are convinced by the Spirit of God that the Bible is the Word of God, life can only flow along a path marked by two further life-consuming questions: "What has God said?" and "How then do I need to believe and live?" Life will move irresistibly toward a course of study (to know God's Truth) and submission (to believe and obey God's truth). Life will be marked by a persevering impassioned quest to learn and to do; to hear and to obey.

If one lands on the other side of this watershed, doubting or denying that the Bible is God's Word, then life will flow along an entirely different path. It will not be impassioned to hear or obey His voice. At best it'll be mildly religious, respectably broad-thinking, philosophically undecided, spiritually double-minded.

I think I detect in today's church this fundamental double-mindedness. Too many debates rage over gender roles, the nature of God's sovereignty and the perfection of His knowledge, the existence of an eternal hell, emergent perspectives (and a host of other matters), which when you listen carefully are being argued, not over the text and meaning of Scripture, but over the integrity and authority of Scripture.

In other words, people's arguments against historic Christian doctrines often seem to reveal a lack of conviction that the Bible is God's Word and the final authority for faith and practice. As they recount their journey away from biblical orthodoxy they admit that it began with personal philosophical or emotional struggle rather than Biblical data.

At a more personal level, when people say: "I know that's what the Bible says, but...", unbelief that the Bible is God's authoritative voice is exposed. People “but” their way out of obedience to God’s Word because at least in the moment they do not really believe that that’s what it is. Similarly, the fact that many Christians do not read their Bibles consistently or give themselves to a life of learning God's truth reveals the same foundational flaw in their faith. Logically such neglect can only mean that one's confidence that God has spoken and that the Bible is His final Word is weak at best.

I know that we all (myself included) battle the flesh and the busyness of life, and this makes Bible disciplines hard to practice. But don't you think that there must be something fundamentally askew in our thinking about the Bible (whether or not it is God's Word) if we are not making it our relentless habit and impassioned commitment to read it and hear it and obey it?

Here's the watershed: what will you decide about the Bible? Land on one side of the question and you'll move toward a life determined by personally preferred opinions. Land on the other side and you'll live life in a perpetual posture of an eager and humble submission: "Lord, speak. Your servant will believe and obey."

Where have you landed?

Labels: Faith, Hearing God's Word, The Word of God

One reason many don't rightly hear the Word of God is because they have nagging doubts that it is the Word of God. Like the boy Samuel of old (1 Samuel 3:1-10), they fail to hear/read God's words as the words of God, because they think them instead to be the words of man. Their heart need is for faith: an evidence-grounded and Spirit-produced confidence that the Bible is the very Word of the true God. Settle that matter and the urgency of right hearing becomes clear.

But has God really spoken and is the Bible His final Word? Can I offer five broad reasons why I believe the answer to both these questions is yes?

1. Prediction. If you read a book in which there are hundreds of specific predictions of historical events--including dozens about the coming Messiah--all of which have come true, wouldn't you agree that there is reason to think that that book might have a Divine origin? Such is the case with the Bible.

2. Perfection. If you read a book written by 40+ men spanning 1,500 years, the major teachings of which address the most controversial topics known to man, and if you find that its message is perfectly consistent, and without contradiction, wouldn't you at least consider that it had a single, unifying, inspiring Mind behind it?

3. Corroboration (verification). If you read a book that presents thousands of historical details about towns, cities, people, rulers, and events, multiplied hundreds of which have been verified by archeological science, would you not begin to trust in its integrity?

And if you read the message of the Bible--what it says about God, about human nature, about sin, about life, about history, about death--and then see that all of these are corroborated both by nature and human experience, would you not think that this is more than coincidence?

What nature reveals about the Creator--that He is powerful, intelligent, wise, loving and yes, even angry-- and what Scripture reveals about that Creator are in perfect harmony. This fact drives me to believe that that God is real, and that the Bible is His Word.

4. Incarnation. If abundant historical evidence exists that Someone once lived who did amazing things like healing the sick and raising the dead (including himself), who even claimed to be God in the flesh, wouldn't you pay attention to His words? And if this Man claims that the Bible is God's Word, wouldn't you find that good reason to believe that it is?

That Jesus worked miracles and did wondrous things, including predicting and causing His own resurrection is one of the more verifiable claims of ancient history. So when He as the most authenticated miracle-worker and most celebrated teacher of all time claims that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God,that's good enough for me. I love Andy Stanley's take on it:

"My high school teacher once told me that much in Genesis is false. But since my high school teacher did not prove that he was God by rising from the dead, I'm going to believe Jesus instead." (Cited by Geisler and Turek in I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist)

5. Self-authentication. And finally if you read a book that is simply alive and powerful, that by its own truth, beauty, and glory has changed everything about you and not only you but countless millions of others like you, would you not credit it with being something more than human?

This is what I mean by self-authentication. The Bible proves itself by it's own inherent worth, beauty, and power. It's like the sun. No one has to argue that the sun is bright; all they have to do is see it and its effects. So it is with the Bible, once it is read and learned in truth. It proves its own Divine origin. It is simply too powerful, too beautiful, too intrinisically good to be anything other than Divine.

Based on these facts, God has convinced me that He has spoken, and that the Bible is His final Word. In doing that, He also has set the direction of my life. Once I knew that God has spoken and that the Bible is His final Word, all I've been able to do ever since is approach the Bible echoing the boy Samuel: "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

How about you?

Labels: Apologetics, Faith, Hearing God's Word, The Word of God

My dear friend Steve Cassarino gave our church an exceptionally powerful and important word yesterday, preaching about the right hearing of the Word of God.

As I have long reflected on the right preaching and hearing of God's Word I have learned that while the preacher's study, life, and presentation are all very important, at least equally important is the life and present tense heart condition of the hearer. The hearer has to be spiritually tuned in.

The hearer of the Word must be as spiritually prepared and diligent in the experience of preaching as is the preacher of the Word. This is clearly the implication of James 1:19-25; Luke 8:11-21 and other texts.

This biblical perspective is supported by a report from the well-known preacher, Dr. David Jeremiah. As I heard the story, years ago Dr. Jeremiah had a battle with cancer. During his treatments he took his radio program off the air. Once his treatments were over he returned to the air and the public tuned in and was blessed again.

Only now the blessing seemed to be increased. Soon he began to receive many letters thanking him for his preaching and commenting on how his preaching had a distinctly different quality about it since his bout with cancer. I'm guessing that people felt it was more sensitive, more pastoral, more effective--perhaps because it was coming to them now from a man who had been through the fires of affliction. People were very grateful for the marked growth of effectiveness in his post-cancer radio ministry.

But here's the deal: the post-cancer radio ministry was nothing more than recorded messages of Dr. Jeremiah's pre-cancer preaching! He hadn't broadcasted any of his post-cancer sermons yet. Think about that. What it means is that the post-cancer hearers were the ones who had changed, not Dr. Jeremiah.

They were the same people listening to the same preacher, but their hearts had changed toward the preacher. His preaching was the same, but their listening wasn't. They thought they were listening to a cancer victim. They thought they were listening to a man made humble and sensitive by affliction. And as a result they were the ones who had changed. They were more open, more humble, more receptive, more inclined to listen, less inclined to find fault. And as a result, the Word came with greater power and effect to their lives.

This explains the experience I have had more times than can be counted, when people have responded in completely opposite ways to the very same sermon that I have preached. Of course I realize that the effect of preaching is a matter of the Sovereign Spirit blowing where He will and God giving the increase (John 3:8; 1 Corinthians 3:6). And I realize that God is omnipotent in grace so that He can transform a heart through preaching.

But the Bible is also clear that the effect of preaching is often determined by the heart condition of the hearer. This is why one is unmoved by a sermon while another is profoundly changed. One feels a sermon to be hard or harsh while another finds it sweet. One finds it heart-breaking while another finds it soul-thrilling. One is exhilerated while another is bored to tears. It's all about the condition of the hearer's heart.

Unless the Spirit works in ways to overcome the condition of the heart (and praise be to God that He often does!), whatever the heart condition going into the hearing the Word will affect the heart condition and reponse once the Word has been heard. The effect of the Word is more about having good reception than it is about making a good presentation.

So it's important that we think even more about how to prepare to rightly hear the Word. Over the next few days I think we'll explore this vital component of Christian growth in grace.

I hope you'll tune in.

Labels: Hearing God's Word, Preaching, Spiritual disciplines, The Word of God