Questions Answered by the Lord's Prayer

From J. I. Packer's Praying the Lord's Prayer:

We need to see that the Lord's Pray is offering us model answers to the series of questions God puts to us to shape our conversation with him. Thus:

What do you take me for, and what am I to you?

Our Father in heaven.

That being so, what is it that you really want most?

The hallowing of your name; the coming of your kingdom; to see your will known and done.

So what are you asking for right now, as a means to that end?

Provision, pardon, protection.

How can you be so bold and confident in asking for these things?

Because we know you can do it, and when you do it, it will bring you glory!

By the way, Packer also writes:

Three venerable formulae together add up to Christianity: the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, summarizing respectively the Christian way of believing, behaving, and communing with God.

His Praying the Lord's Prayer is also available as part of a larger volume titled Growing in Christ that includes his studies on each of these three foundational statements.


Source

The Crazy Idea of Fasting

Back on the first day of this year, John Piper posted a brief article on fasting, and I've been saving it to pass on to you this week, when we'll be looking at Jesus' teaching on fasting in Matthew 6:16-18.

Piper writes:

Jesus did not say, “If you fast...” but “When you fast...” (Matthew 6:16). This will be new (even over the top) for some of you. So do a crazy thing in 2009. It might change your relationship with God. And your life.

Here’s a tiny bit of help. A bit on how. And a bit on why.

How to Fast

Pick a day of the week or a day of the month and plan to fast in 2009. Plan which meal or meals to skip. Skip them entirely, or do it with only juice or only water. There are no rules. There is only spiritual hunger being spoken and stoked with physical hunger.

Take some of the time you would have spent eating and read some scripture and take time to tell God why you are doing this and what you long for.

Why Fast? Here are six biblical aims for fasting.

1. For Jesus to come back

Matthew 9:14-15
Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

2. For help in a new venture in ministry

Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Acts 13:3
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

3. To avert some danger or threat

Ezra 8:21
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

2 Samuel 12:16
David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

4. To express sorrow and loss

2 Samuel 1:12
They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

1 Chronicles 10:12
All the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh, and they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

5. To express repentance and grief for sin

Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

6. Not for the praise of men

Matthew 6:16-18
Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

(For more instruction and inspiration in fasting see A Hunger
for God, Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer.)

With One Voice, Part 4

This continues a series of posts from an extensive interview conducted by Leadership Journal with young worship songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty who hail from Northern Ireland. The complete text is available here.

LJ: So are modern hymns the solution to the "worship wars"?

Keith: Church music fights did not begin twelve months after The Beatles started and the church realized that there was new music. These arguments about what Christians should sing have gone on all of time, from rival monasteries to rival cathedrals. They're not going to end. And so anybody who prescribes a musical solution is blowing smoke.

LJ: Well put.

Keith: There's a reason why the Lord made the church a multigenerational, multiclass, multiethnic, diverse group of people. I doubt that everybody in Acts had the same musical tastes, if they were Jews and Greek and slave and free and Sabean and different things.

LJ: If modern hymns won't end the conflict over musical styles, what makes them relevant?

Kristyn: Well, the truth is always relevant. If the songs are full of truth, they will never be out of date.

Keith: Good art is good art. There's no such thing as good Christian art or good contemporary art. If you can create something that's good, it has lasting value.

I think part of the reason contemporary worship has been so successful is that it has put truth in the current idiom and melodies most can sing. But it's important we don't lose the point. The point isn't to be contemporary for contemporary's sake. If you try to create something that's contemporary, it's got a very limited shelf life because it only lasts as long as those things are considered contemporary. I think that's why everybody's rushing to go backwards to try and find something from the past—because they've totally lost context of where they're at.

LJ: Do modern hymns help re-connect the church with the past?

Keith: Sure. For instance, the hymn "O Church Arise" was a study of Lutheran hymnody. Luther's vision of the church was that it was the only hope for the world we live in, for the lonely person with the lonely eyes we walk past in the street. That's quite relevant today. "Speak, O Lord" was a study of old hymns of illumination that prepare the church for the preaching of the Word.

Kristyn: In America, "new" is a positive word. The positive energy and desire to do new things in America is certainly wonderful. But the truth is life isn't always just a blank page. The Christian life is about remembering, not just all that God has taught us through the Scriptures but also from church history. Every generation must find new expression, new color. But we're the worse off when we disconnect ourselves from the past and are always in pursuit of a blank page. That's true in the church and in society as a whole.

C. S. Lewis says that learning is not so much like a train going from one station to the next, so that we leave something and go on to another. Instead, in the way that a tree grows, you add rings to your understanding without leaving the old behind. We can harness all that is good and should never be forgotten from the past as we move on. We're still moving and ebbing and trying new things, without becoming disconnected from the root.

Keith: The contemporary generation talks a lot about songs having to sound contemporary for the unchurched to listen to. In my experience of having non-Christian friends attend Christian events or church, they're much more warmed when everyone is singing passionately and confidently, rather than somewhere somebody's trying to do something half as well as it might be done on MTV, or where everybody in the congregation is standing around and staring. Nine times out of ten, they're actually quite embarrassed by that.

Free Audio Book on Spiritual Disciplines

In our tour through the Sermon on the Mount, we are coming to Jesus' discussion of religious practices or "spiritual disciplines." While the most basic of these are prayer and the reading, meditation, and memorization of Scripture, we also know about fasting (which we practice less often), and I've even heard some describe evangelism as a spiritual discipline.

For most of us, our experience in the disciplines is anything but disciplined. We tend to go in spurts-- seasons of faithful practice, but dry times and dead spots turn into periods of near, or perhaps complete, abandonment.

We complain that our world does not give us much time or quiet, which is true, but there is no one else to blame but ourselves for not making time with God a priority.

Though no book that I know of can make you disciplined or actually do your praying for you, one volume that I recommend on this topic is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. I've read several of his books and used a couple for small group studies in years past.

By a delightful providence, I got an email yesterday from christianaudio saying that their free audio book of the month is Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Follow this link, select "download," and enter the coupon code MAR2009 at checkout. You can also go here to peruse the print copy and read some reviews.

Next Sermon - Matthew 6:1-18 on 03/08/09

You'll find the text for next Sunday's sermon below. The first verse is what holds it all together.

Matthew 6:1-18

1 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

With One Voice, Part 3

Here's another segment from the Leadership Journal interview with worship songwriters Keith & Kristyn Getty. This part is little more about music, but it does have ministry implications. The complete text of the interview can be found here.

[Keith has just said that "the goal is to write melodies that are singable rather than songs that sound like ones on the pop charts."]

LJ: Where do you find your inspiration in that effort?

Keith: Our songwriting style has two main inspirations, both of them equally unchristian. One is Irish folk music, which is very singable and social. It's almost tailor made for congregational singing. The other is the only contemporary popular genre written in a similar style: the 1930s Jewish songwriters of Tin Pan Alley—George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. Their craft was honing perfect melodies and then putting lyrics to it.

LJ: To clarify, why is the melody so important?

Keith: Because a good melody transcends musical style. For instance, a Gershwin song became a Broadway musical, a number one hit in the pop charts, a jazz standard, and a standard in the classical music cult long before pops orchestras.

Kristyn: Sometimes with modern music, you rely on the groove or the lead singer or the syncopation patterns in order for the congregation to be able to follow along. So if you take out the drum, the song doesn't work. But melodic folk music is quite versatile. You can dress and arrange it in so many different ways. You can sing it with the piano and a leading vocal, or without all those things.

We often cite "Be Thou My Vision" as an example. The lyrics date to around the sixth century, but it's still being sung. And you've heard it with a big rock band, and you've heard it just voices and nothing else. It's incredible what you can do with that folk melody. That's a great example of how a song continues to be relevant. It's not bound by any generation or style.

So we're always chasing that melody that might transcend all those boundaries and just be easy to sing.

LJ: That sounds like a lot of work.

Keith: Since June of this year, I've probably written three hundred melodies, and I'll only use two or three of those.

You probably have a sense for what they are talking about, even if you don't know a lot about music in the technical sense. Here's a simple test: you know a melody is good if you can hum it, whistle it, or sing it without the radio to back you up. It's no accident that "Amazing Grace," "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," or "What Wondrous Love Is This" are easy to sing. They arose out of folk melodies that people sang as they worked, played, or walked along.

This is not to say that contemporary pop music is bad-- it's just that it doesn't lend itself as well to singing in community, which is what the church is. There are some newer songs that do sing well, like "How Great Is Our God" to use a non-Getty song for example, but we can't assume that something that sounds good on the radio is a good congregational song.

This is all the more important to consider as we work with limited instrumentation. We would be happy to use more instruments as we have the talent available, but we have to choose our music in light of the musical support we can give it. We might be able to pull off more pop-oriented songs if we are able to develop a broader instrumental foundation, but we shall have to wait and see. The nice thing is, as the Gettys noted, you can always spice up a good song, but it's hard to simplify a poor one.

Turning the Other Cheek

Sometimes it’s discouraging to reflect on my own sermons. The Word of God is so profound, so deep, and I have the wonderful privilege to serve God’s people by studying the Word and preaching it, and yet often I feel like my offerings are so meager. It’s not just the listeners who need to have perseverance and faith!

To be sure, some of what I feel about this morning’s message is due to the limitations of the series—trying to do Matthew in 58 sermons, which is long but often feels not long enough—and the fact that I had a short week due to illness in me and among my family.

I am left with nagging things that I wish could have been said, or said better, in the sermon. “Turn the other cheek” and “Love your enemies” are profound and have many implications, some of which are just plain confounding and confusing. And it’s not good when the sermon may have added to the confusion.

I had a brief discussion with a congregant after the service who was wondering when it is appropriate to turn the other cheek. I had said earlier that Jesus’ words did not mean that we were to accept all abuse in every circumstance, and yet the whole point is that there are times that we should suffer abuse rather than strike back or otherwise defend ourselves. How do we know when we should take the hurt that the world dishes out to us?

In America, we are blessed with a strong, albeit imperfect, system of justice and a wonderful legacy of human rights. Thus, we as citizens are very aware of our rights, and we have the ability through our legal system to see that we “get our rights.” It is quite foreign to us to think of relinquishing our rights or foregoing the opportunity to get what is rightfully ours.

Jesus calls us to be ready and willing to let go of our rights for his sake. This has something to do with thinking of others more than ourselves, but, more significantly in the Sermon on the Mount, it also stands as a complete antithesis of the way this world operates after the Fall. Followers of Christ do not enter the power struggle of this world. It’s not how the kingdom of God works, and it’s not the way the kingdom will come.

If we read this wrongly, we could conclude that Jesus calls us not to combat evil, but to capitulate to it. This is not so, as it is perfectly consistent with “turning the other cheek” to stand up for the rights of others. In fact, fighting for the oppressed or defending the widow and orphan may be what brings the world’s fist against you. But here’s a thought experiment: do non-Christians see us more often fighting for the rights of others, or defending our own?

I fear that, whether at a personal level, or that of the national stage, most people think that Christians are trying to defend their own kind, and their own way of life. We might think we are defending morality, but it is seen as scrapping for our piece of the pie. The world sees us as just another special interest group, and the thing we are most interested in is us.

Fundamentally, I believe that in each situation we have to wrestle with our own hearts as to whether or not we are seeking to defend our rights, and then be ready to relinquish them for the sake of stepping outside of the world’s ways of fighting. We may suffer injustice on the way to the only truly just society, the kingdom of God, but that way is indeed the way of the cross.

With One Voice, Part 2

I'm continuing to work through an interview recently published in Leadership Journal with Keith & Kristyn Getty, who are some of my favorite worship songwriters. Here is another section I'm lifting to give you, along with a few comments of my own. You can find the whole thing here.

LJ: How do you negotiate differing musical tastes in worship when trying to bring the generations together?

Keith: It's not a matter of singing "Here I Am to Worship" immediately before the sermon and "Just As I Am" immediately after.

Kristyn: And it's not running an election—trying to appeal to the youth vote and the middle vote and the senior vote. We're preaching the gospel, which is for all generations, all tribes.

We hear the word "blended" an awful lot—people trying to do the best of the old with the best of the new. Everybody sings the songs they like. And that's a practical effort at trying to do your best in a complicated situation. But there have to be occasions when the whole body is singing the same song together. So we look for songs—not just our own—that create opportunities for an eight year old and an eighty-eight year old to stand together and sing.

Keith: It seems to me that if a church splits up over music that music has become more important than togetherness in itself. Music is merely a servant to the body of believers. I imagine that in Kenya or Eastern Europe or persecuted China, gathering together as a body of believers is more important than the fact that half of you listen to Coldplay and half of you listen to Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, or Bach.

Kristyn: I wonder if approaching things from the two principles we work from, as opposed to drums or no drums or jazz style or rock style, it might erase some of the difficulties. We just over-complicate everything so much.

Keith: When we worship, we're effectively joining with believers all around the world on a Sunday. We're also singing with the generations that have gone before us, and we're singing as a foretaste of what will come after us. So what we're doing now is a representation of that. And if it's a representation of such unity, why are people walking through two separate doors?

LJ: So you're not concerned with writing in a particular style?

Keith: I think less than half a dozen times since we've started has someone come up to me and said, "Your music is my favorite style of music in the world." No kind of music is popular with everyone, so we try to write the kind of music that suits amateur singers. Most of our songs actually can be done in contemporary arrangements, but the goal is to write melodies that are singable rather than songs that sound like ones on the pop charts.

This discussion reflects another challenge of today's worship leading pastor. Style is more important than ever to most people: they feel strongly about it, and they increasingly take their identity from it. If a musical style is identified with a different generation or social group, then others will seek to have nothing to do with it.

This is a problem for churches. Well, apparently not for some who just create separate services for varying styles of music. Ah, but it is a problem, because to be the Church is to be a people who might be varied in gender, race, culture, socio-economic class, or education, but most definitely are united in Christ.

That is why we work to find songs that are congregational, meaning that everyone can join in. Yes, we will sing some songs that stretch older members, but not too far. And we will sing some songs that stretch younger members, but not too far. But we will also try to find songs that are just flat-out singable doctrine that everyone who is willing to set aside their preferred niche can eagerly enter into.

Come, People of the Risen King

In this video, Keith & Kristyn Getty are guest worship leaders-- Keith on piano and Kristyn singing the lead. They are teaching a congregation their song called "Come, People of the Risen King." The host church choir does a nice job backing them up, but you're better off trying not to focus on the robes.

With One Voice

You may have noticed that we sing several songs by Keith & Kristyn Getty in our worship services. If their names don't ring a bell, consider these titles that they have authored or co-authored:

"In Christ Alone"
"O Church, Arise"
"Jesus Is Lord"
"Every Promise"
"The Power of the Cross"
"There Is a Higher Throne"
"Across the Lands"
"Hear the Call of the Kingdom"
"Joy Has Dawned upon the World"

Basically, we teach about six to eight new songs to our congregation each year, and you can just about count on one or two of them being from the Gettys.

Leadership Journal recently held an extensive interview with the Gettys. I thought about just linking you to the article and leaving it at that, but I think I'll post several segments and make some comments on why I am drawn to their work. Here's our first installment (though if you just can't wait, you can read it all here).

LJ: What trends do you see in worship that compel you to write hymns?

Keith: They say that in every culture, the signs of the church on the slide are, first, that the church becomes decreasingly knowledgeable of God. Second, the church becomes increasingly obsessed with itself. Third, the church views every part of the spiritual walk for what they can get out of it—its therapeutic value. We see that happening today. So we want to write songs that address this shallowness by articulating the deep truths of the faith.

In addition, I think the goal of congregational worship is to be congregational.

We look for songs that bring all ages together because singing is an act of unity.

As the church's influence began to slip in Britain, the churches tried to use music to attract people. They moved music to the front, with professional choirs, and held well-developed and well-rehearsed services. In the short-term, it worked. But it ultimately distanced the front from the back, so that churches lost a sense of both community and what real worship is actually about. Worship music changed from something sung by the people to something done from the front by professionals.

Kristyn: That's why we have a lot of empty cathedrals and churches that are being sold as restaurants.

Keith: And although everything is contemporary in style in America, I think the pattern is dangerously similar. So we want to write songs that everyone can sing—songs that are truly congregational.

LJ: You're committed to the hymn. What are the musical and lyrical elements of a hymn?

Keith: There's no scientific difference between a hymn and a song. We just run with "hymn" because we couldn't think of a better word. For us it boils down to those two simple principles: songs that teach the faith and that the whole congregation can sing. So musically, a song has to be easy and inspirational to sing, and lyrically it has to teach the truth of God in a way that is emotionally engaging and poetic.

Kristyn: Not all old hymns have the same desire for content. They're not all singable. So we're not suggesting that a hymn is more sanctified or more holy. But there are creative and theological principles that have been thought through and worked out through the past that are worth considering and applying to a new generation. Every generation needs music in its own vernacular. But the principles of teaching people the faith and then giving them words to declare it are timeless.

Their convictions are clear: to write congregationally singable, doctrinally rich songs, so that the Church (i.e., the congregation) is able to declare, reaffirm, and celebrate the Faith in her singing, and thereby be taught and grow in that Faith.

Many (not all) old hymns are theologically rich, but have archaic words, flowery poetry, and/or stodgy melodies. They might still be good for enjoying as personal devotional reading, but they are not so good for corporate worship.

But many (not all) contemporary worship hits are doctrinally thin, have clumsy poetry and overly syncopated melodies. They might still be good for enjoying on the radio in the car, but they are not so good for corporate worship.

That's why it's always tricky for a worship leading pastor to retain the best of the old, and select the best of what's new. Keeping tabs on the Gettys helps.

Devilish, Human, or Divine

Matthew 5:43-44a

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies..."

"To return evil for good is devilish;
to return good for good is human;
to return good for evil is divine."

- Alfred Plummer, from his 1915 commentary on Matthew,
quoted by D. A. Carson.

Persuasive Speech

Here's a great story about an amazing young girl, via WORLD:

Lia, a 12-year-old girl from Toronto, was assigned to come up with a persuasive speech for her seventh grade class. Teachers told her the topic she chose was “too big,” “too mature,” “too controversial,” and if she went forward with it she would not be allowed to advance to the schoolwide competition or beyond.

Lia, however, would not be swayed, and once her teacher heard her presentation, she declared her the class winner. But when Lia spoke before the entire school she was initially disqualified because of her topic. Later, one of the judges who was offended by the speech stepped down, and the remaining judges reversed their earlier decision and declared Lia the school’s winner and representative in a regional competition.

Follow the link above to read how her speech has already persuaded more than the judges.

Imagine You Are Part of a Church Planting Team

Via the Church Matters blog, here's a portion of the book Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community. Though I've listened to several lectures by the pastor-authors, I have yet to get to this book that's been sitting on my long list for a while. This only whets my appetite:

We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church planting team in a cross cultural situation in some other part of the world.

· What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
· How would you approach secular employment?
· What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
· What would you spend your time doing?
· What opportunities would you be looking for?
· What would your prayers be like?
· What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
· What kind of team would you want around you?
· How would you conduct your meetings together?

We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world… These are the kinds of questions we should be asking wherever we are.

While I understand the concern of some who believe that we minimize cross-cultural missions by saying "Everyone is a missionary," I still think that these kinds of questions (above) are very helpful and challenging. I would say that the difference between a "regular Christian" and a missionary is one of degree, not category.

Candidate for President of Trinity

This was announced today on the Trinity International University website, which encompasses not only Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, but Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the seminary of the EFCA.

After a long and exhaustive search process, the Trinity Board's Presidential Search Committee presented a final candidate for President of Trinity International University to the Board of Regents at last week's meeting. The candidate is Dr. Craig Williford (PhD '95), most recently President of Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado.

Dr. Williford combines an engaging personality with an outstanding track record of higher education spiritual leadership, growth, and fund-raising. In his eight years at Denver Seminary, God used him in a mighty way to turn the school around and put it on a solid financial footing. In the very difficult economic times that we, and all in our present world, are facing, such strong and experienced leadership is more important than ever. Dr. Williford has a high regard and enthusiasm for Trinity and its potential, born of both his past studies here and his subsequent involvement in the world of Christian higher education and the local church.

Dr. Williford and his wife, Carolyn, have been on campus in Deerfield this week, meeting with faculty and the leadership of the university. The Board will consider the feedback from these meetings as they prepare to vote on his candidacy in the coming days. Should the Board vote to recommend Dr. Williford as the final candidate, the Evangelical Church of America Board of Directors will then vote whether to approve him to be presented to the EFCA for a vote at the annual conference this June in Minnesota.

Please pray for Dr. and Mrs. Williford throughout this process and for the ongoing Kingdom mission and ministry of Trinity International University.

By all means, do pray. I don't know of Dr. Williford enough to make any comment, though I do have confidence in the search committee. This will be a critical appointment for our denomination and its schools.

Really, Really Born Again

From Phil Ryken:

I just received my copy of John Piper's new book Finally Alive: What Happens When We Are Born Again? One of Piper's reasons for making the biblical case for born-again Christianity is to guard the term against its misuse in popular culture, especially in the sociological research of The Barna Group. Piper writes:

"When the Barna Group uses the term 'born again' to describe American church-goers whose lives are indistinguishable from the world, and who sin as much as the world, and sacrifice for others as little as the world, and embrace injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, and enjoy God-ignoring entertainment as enthusiastically as the world -- when the term 'born again' is used to describe these professing Christians, the Barna Group is making a profound mistake."

They are using the term "born-again," Piper says, "in a way that would make it unrecognizable by Jesus and the biblical writers." What the research shows instead, according to Piper, "is not that born-again people are permeated with worldiness," but "that the church is permeated by people who are not born again."

Or, to put it another way, how can we say that we are born again, if there are no signs of spiritual life in us?

Next Sermon - Matthew 5:38-48 on 03/01/09

This coming Sunday, we will conclude the section of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus presents himself as the new authoritative interpreter of the Law, with the repetition of "You have heard it said... But I say to you."

Matthew 5:38-48

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Helping Make Virtue More "Realistic"

Did you hear all the fuss about Bristol Palin's interview last week? She first gained notoriety last summer shortly after her mother, Sarah Palin, was named the Republican candidate for the vice presidency of the United States. Bristol came under the scrutiny of the press as it was revealed that she was an unwed teenage mother-to-be.

Then this past week on Fox News, Bristol, now having given birth to her child, told the interviewer that sexual abstinence for teens is "not realistic at all." As you might imagine, the media focused on that one juicy tidbit.

At the end of the day, this isn't about Bristol Palin or her famous mother, because there are bigger issues at play in this discussion. Here is Al Mohler's conclusion:

Is sexual abstinence realistic for teenagers and young adults? Well, abstinence is certainly not realistic when teenagers put themselves - or they are put there by others - into a situation where sexual activity is likely. At some point, sexual abstinence becomes very unrealistic indeed.

The real issue for Christian teenagers and their parents is not to debate whether sexual abstinence before marriage is realistic or not. The larger and more important issue is that sexual abstinence until marriage is the biblical expectation and command. Once this is realized, the responsibility for everyone concerned is to ensure that expectations and structures are in place so that abstinence is realistic.

The debate over whether abstinence is realistic or not misses the more important issue -- abstinence must be made realistic.

Parents and teenagers must make certain that adequate protections and expectations are in place so that sexual abstinence is very realistic indeed. Far too many Christian parents allow their teenagers to be part of the "hooking up" scene of teenage culture. In that highly sexualized context, sexual abstinence would appear unrealistic in the extreme.

Premature pair dating and unsupervised liaisons, set within the supercharged culture of teenage sexuality, can put teenagers into very vulnerable situations. Asking whether sexual abstinence in those contexts is realistic can appear almost irrational.

Those who reject the norm of sexual abstinence for teenagers will leap on Bristol Palin's statement as evidence for their cause. But the real issue here is our responsibility to ensure that abstinence is made realistic and stays realistic. Anything short of this is truly "not realistic at all."

This perspective seems to have much wider application. How do my habits and patterns of life, how does the "culture" within my own home, shape my thinking on what virtues are realistic or unrealistic?

The Purity Principle

We're planning an event for men on the topic of sexual purity for Saturday, March 28. Here is another helpful resource on this topic.

Randy Alcorn's brief book called The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails is a good read on this topic. At only 94 pages, it packs plenty of biblical wisdom in a small package. It's been five years or so since I've read it, but I would commend it to you without reservation. Here's an excerpt:

"But we really love each other" has no bearing on the ethics of sexual intimacy. Sex does not become permissible through subjective feelings, but only through the objective, lifelong commitment of marriage. Those are God's rules.
There's nothing we can do to change them. The rules are always enforced. When we break them they always break us.

A smart traveler doesn't curse guardrails. He doesn't whine, "That guardrail dented my fender!" He looks over the cliff, sees demolished autos, and thanks God for guardrails.

God's guardrails are his moral laws. They are there not to punish or deprive us but to protect us. God doesn't forbid us fleeting pleasures out of malice. Rather, he calls us to higher and lasting pleasures out of love. His warnings stand between us and destruction.

Andy Naselli recently compiled several links to resources connected to this book here.

Bonus Features from Matthew 19

If my sermon was a movie, this would be on the DVD release as a bonus feature-- something that didn't make the final edit, but I believe it's still interesting and worthwhile.

Matthew 19:3-5

3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" 4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'?

In the sermon I pointed to the significance of Jesus' phrase "Have you not read" in making the point that the Pharisees needed to re-read the Scriptures with different eyes to discover the answers they were seeking.

But there is another subtle reinforcement of the authority of Scripture as God's Word in these verses. Not that the Pharisees doubted this, but it is certainly a needed reminder for our day.

Note that Jesus' answer is that "he who created them [God]... said, 'Therefore....'" What's the point? Well, in Genesis 2:24, which is the source for the quotation in verse 5, the words are simply those of the narrator/author Moses, but Jesus attributes them to God. Thus, even though written by Moses, they are, as Scripture, just as truly God's words.

Jesus took the Scriptures, written by men, to be the Word of God. Don't you think it would be wise to take the same view?

Settling into Routine

Ray Ortlund, Jr., from When God Comes to Church:

We can settle into a routine of activities at church and in our small groups and Bible studies, with little expectation of anything new. The familiar becomes the predictable, and everything from here on out will be more of the same. We dip our teaspoon into the vast ocean of the living God. Holding that teaspoon in our hand, we say, “This is God.” We pour it out into our lives, and we say, “This is the Christian Experience.”

*****

God is not limited to our past experiences, our traditions, or what we think the church’s next step should be. We must leave room for divine mystery, for surprise. God never acts out of character but he does exceed our expectations.

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