5 Marks of a Stinky Sermon
To help you avoid preparing and preaching stinky sermons, I have provided a short list of common marks of a stinky sermon.
Walk into each sermon with the assumption that God has already written the sermon for you, and you merely need to follow the text. A text-driven sermon will eventually take both the preacher and the congregation to the foot of the cross, or else it is merely empty speech. No preacher should expect to... Continue Reading
Jonathan Edwards the Pastor
Rather than relying on outward signs of success, Edwards sought to cultivate—through prayer, Bible study, and meditation—dependence on God alone.
Edwards was only twenty-three when he became the assistant pastor of First Church of Northampton, Mass., a Congregational church led by his maternal grandfather, the venerable Solomon Stoddard. Just two years later, Stoddard died, leaving Edwards to shepherd the church alone. He would remain pastor of First Church until July 1, 1750. They were years... Continue Reading
Finding the Antichrist Today
John's four texts set out a markedly different understanding of Antichrist than that given us by contemporary prophecy "experts."
I can still remember the fear instilled in me as a child, when I heard one preacher declare that Antichrist was then living somewhere in the Middle East, probably still a child playing stickball in some crowded dusty street, awaiting the day when he would be possessed by the devil and allowed to wreak havoc... Continue Reading
The Idol of Idolatry
As we focus on identifying and smashing the idols in our lives, we sometimes forget to pause and marvel at God’s sufficiency as He uses these fears and struggles for our sanctification.
The problem with the vigilante Christian life was that I concerned myself more with being an expert idol smasher than with seeing God as sufficient in what He was using to sanctify me. Instead of wrestling with matters like my fears, my doubts about God, my love for nature and art, my career plans or... Continue Reading
What Else Do You Have On In The Week?
Sometimes they’re asking: How can I be involved? Often they’re asking: How can I belong?
If someone’s life is already full of unwitting cultural liturgical practices, then why would our default be to offer a pick-and-mix set of other liturgical practices to slot into the increasingly narrow timeframes? That’s a recipe for frustration and busy-ness for churches. That is the #1 question newcomers ask when wondering if they should... Continue Reading
False Alarms And The Impending Judgment of God
A message more urgent than a nuclear warhead and more inescapable than being trapped on an island with an inbound missile is the coming judgment of God.
Like the proverbial “boy who cried wolf,” many are so accustomed to false alarms they don’t take heed when a warning is actually true. Our warnings of God’s judgment is often met with indifference and sudden attempts to change the conversation. Likewise, the words of the prophet Ezekiel were not heard as he warned of... Continue Reading
Let’s Just be Honest and Admit We Hate one Another
Pick your debate. Pick your side. It might be something that actually matters or it could even be trifling nonsense.
In our day and age it doesn’t matter much—pick a side, be outraged by something. Can we call this what it is? Hatred. We hate one another. This is the conclusion I came to in reading through Proverbs 10:12. I also found much help by Charles Bridges’ commentary on Proverbs. Are you a Democrat? A Republican?... Continue Reading
5 Ways to Be a Godly Grandparent
Scripture doesn’t let grandparents, or even seniors without their own children or grandchildren, off the hook for impacting the next generation.
The Christian life is a race, and we’re called to run to the very end (Hebrews 12:1–3), not just to an arbitrary retirement age! God can use you to make an impact on the lives of those around you regardless of your age (young [1 Timothy 4:12] or old!). Of course, we will likely have... Continue Reading
Should Christians Withdraw from the World?
When Christ calls people into His kingdom, He doesn’t pull them out of the world forever. He sends them back out with the gospel.
Just after His resurrection Jesus came to the upper room, where the Apostles were hiding in fear, and told them that they were to wait for the Spirit to be poured out. But at that point, there was to be no more waiting. Once the Spirit came, they were to go out into the world... Continue Reading
‘Til Kingdom Come
"On the one hand, 'kingdom of God' is the narrower, and 'church' the wider concept...On the other hand, the 'kingdom of God' or 'of heaven' is a broader concept than that of the church."
The complexity of these two concepts necessitates that we give the utmost care to our consideration of both their distinctness and interrelatedness. It is only as we do so that we will profitably enter into conversations about the mission of the church, social justice, mercy ministry, the individual and the corporate, the sacred and the... Continue Reading
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