Are We Preaching Christ or Talking About Christ?

Sobering words and a great reminder from Ray Ortlund. I always appreciate Ray's zeal for Christ and His gospel to be exalted. Read the original post here. 

“My wife always says the most important thing about the man as a preacher was, you didn’t notice him.  He came quietly into the pulpit, started quietly, and then something seemed to happen, and then you became absorbed in what he was saying. . . .

‘We beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Spirit-filled preaching — the preacher is in the background.  And something happens.  The worshiper, by the grace of God, is being spoken to by God and by the Word of God.  So Lloyd-Jones would often say, the difference between talking about Christ and preaching Christ, or talking about the gospel and actually preaching the gospel.  It’s a comparatively easy thing to talk about the gospel, but to really preach it is another thing. . . .

So many preachers have to start their sermon with a nice little anecdote or something interesting, to catch people’s attention.  That is a condemnation of the whole service.  If the service has really been in the presence of God, you don’t need to catch anyone’s attention. . . .

I love that quotation of John Knox.  It’s really a definition of the Reformation: ‘God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.’”

Recent 9Marks audio, Iain Murray interviewed by Mark Dever on “The Pastoral Practices of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.”

Are we pastors even thinking in these categories?

Life's Most Important Question

"And on the way, he (Jesus) asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?'

And they told him, 'John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.'

And he asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?'

Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.'"

Mark 8:27-29

This is the most important question of life. Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you actually claim him to be? Many say he's a good teacher. Many say he's a wise man. Many think he's their 'homeboy'. Many think he is a nice religious figure.

But is He your Christ? Can you say that He is your Savior? Does the deepest conviction of your heart scream out that He is the one and only Savior who is the Son of God? What does your life show? How does the life you live answer this question? Does it proclaim that Jesus is your Christ? That He is your everything. Or does it reveal that Jesus is really just a percentage on a pie chart called your 'life'?

Questions worth considering. 

What Are You Gripped By?

"People that make a difference in the world are not people who have mastered a lot of things. They are people who have been mastered by a very few things, that are very, very great." ~John Piper

I love listening to this 1998 sermon by John Piper in which he delivers this quote. I listen to it before every football game. It gets me pumped up to live a life passionately following Jesus. It always makes me ask the questions, "What am I gripped by? What am I mastered by?" As Piper points out, the greatest thing we can be mastered or gripped by is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's what we were made for.

There are a million things that compete for our hearts affections. Every second of everyday they pry us away, promising a false sense of satisfaction, joy and rest. I see in my own life how easily my heart is gripped by things other than Christ.

I need to be reminded of the ultimate glory that we were made for as humans. We were made for the glory of God. My prayer is that my life vividly shows that I am gripped solely by Jesus Christ. He is my life. He is my only boast. My life doesn't count for anything, if only I can finish my course and display the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:24).

When it's all said and done, it won't matter how much you have or know. What will matter is whose you are. What will matter is what you spent your life gripped by.

Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions

Here is David Platt's full message from T4G 2012. I encourage you, find an hour to listen to this. It is well worth it.

The Sheer Excitement of Knowing God

Brought to my attention by Danny Hindman:

Here is Jim Elliot's final diary entry. Talk about a guy who had tasted the sweetness of knowing God. I long for this kind of affection for Christ and am convicted at my own lack of passion.

It is exalting, delicious, to stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree, with the wind tugging at your coattails, and the heavens hailing your heart, to gaze and glory and give oneself again to God -- what more could a man ask?  Oh the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!  I care not if I never raise my voice again for him, if only I may love him, please him...if only I may see him, touch his garments, and smile into his eyes -- ah then, not stars...shall matter, only himself. 

 

O Jesus, Master and Center and End of all, how long before that glory is yours which has so long awaited you?  Now there is no thought of you among men; then there shall be thought for nothing else.  Now other men are praised; then none shall care for any other's merits.  Hasten, hasten, Glory of Heaven, take your crown, subdue your kingdom, enthrall your creatures. 

Relax, Eat, Drink and Be Merry

"The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do,

for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns 

and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; 

relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul 

is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God."

Luke 12:16-21

What do you say to your own soul? Are you primarily looking to store up treasures for yourself? Do you find yourself living for your own personal comfort? Do you live to 'relax, eat, drink, and be merry'. This is the wasted life, and this is the sad reality of most people in the world (especially in America). 

Everything given to us in the life is given from God, and it is given for the purpose of glorifying His name. If we are given talents, they are to be used to make His name look great. If we have money, it is meant to be handled in a way that makes God look like the ultimate treasure. This passage reminds me of the last verse of a song by Lecrae, 'Don't Waste Your Life'. 

If you're trying to figure out what to do with ya life,
If you make a lot of money hope your doin' it right,
Because the money is God’s, you better steward it right, 
You stay focused, you ain't got no ride,
Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive,
The clothes you wear, the job you work,
The color your skin, nah you're Christian first,
People get it living for a job,
Make a little money start living for a car,
Get em a wife, a house, kids and a dog,
Then they retire, they living high on the hog,
But guess what? They didn’t ever really live at all,
To live is Christ, and that’s Paul I recall,
To die is gain and for Christ we give it all,
He's the treasure you’ll never find in a mall,
See your money, your singleness, marriage, talents, your time,
They were loaned you to show the world that Christ is divine,
That’s why its Christ in my rhymes,
That’s why its Christ all the time,
See my whole world is built around Him,
He’s the life in my lines,
I refuse to waste my life,
He’s too true to chase that ice,
Here’s my gift and time,
'cause I'm constantly tryna ta be used to praise the Christ,
If He’s truly raised to life, 
Then this news should change your life ,
And by His grace you can put your faith in the place that rules your days and nights,
YES!

In the end, God is too worthy, beautiful and glorious for us to waste our lives on ourselves. The joy, comfort and peace from knowing the Living God are infinitely more valuable than the joy, comfort and peace from a large bank account, or from safe retirement, or to live our lives to 'relax, eat, drink and be merry.' This is an attitude in my own life that I must fight for everyday. I need to remind myself of how marvelous the Gospel of God's grace is. I need to taste God's goodness. In these moments of gospel sanity, the lure of living to 'relax, eat, drink and be merry' fades away' and a passion to live for the Living God arises.  

Earthshaking Earnestness

From Richard Baxter's poem, Love Breathing Thanks and Praise,

"I preach as never sure to preach again, 

And as a dying man to dying men!"

When considering the radical claims of the Gospel, when facing the realities of death and eternity, when there are people sitting in the congregation who are dead in their sins, how can I preach about trivialities? The puritan Richard Baxter had a profound sense of urgency in his preaching because he understood the weight of the matter. This gave him a deep sincerity and earnestness in his preaching. No matter the cost, he preached as a dying man, to dying men. Check out this quote from his book, The Reformed Pastor,

"I marvel how I can preach slightly and coldly, 

how I can let men alone in their sins, and that I do not go to

them and beseech them for the Lord's sake to repent,

however they take it, and whatever pains or troubles it should cost me. 

Shouldn't thou weep over such a people, 

and should not thy tears interrupt thy words?

Shouldn't not thou cry aloud and show them their transgressions, 

and entreat and beseech them to life?"

Blaise Pascal's passion

This is an excerpt from the book, "The Call", by Os Guinness. He is writing in regards to Blaise Pascal's passion for God.

"Nearer our own time Blaise Pascal was another such person on fire with a passion for God. Mathematical genius, inventor, grandfather of the computer and modern risk theory, renaissance thinker, well versed in physics, philosophy and theology as well as mathematics, among the most elegant prose stylists in the French language, Pascal is one of the supreme human thinkers of all time.

But almost no one in Pascal's day and still too few in ours know of the experience that kept these achievements in perspective and lay at the core of his brief, intense, pain-filled, flame burst of a life. On the evening of Monday, November 23rd, 1654, he was 31 years old and just experienced a close brush with death in a carriage driving accident. That night he had a profound encounter with God that changed the course of his life.

Pascal's experience lasted from 10:30 PM to 12:30AM. He could only title his experience with one word: Fire. But the experience was so precious and decisive to him that he sewed the parchment record of it into the lining of his doublet and wore it next to his heart. For the remaining 8 years of his life he took the trouble to sew it into every new doublet he bought, and it was only found by his sister, who felt the odd bump it formed, after his death in 1662. It read,

'God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,

not of philosophers and scholars.

Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace.

God of Jesus Christ.

God of Jesus Christ.

My God and Your God.

Your God shall be my God.

The world forgotten, and everything except God.

He can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospels.

Greatness of the human soul.

O righteous Father, the world had not known thee,

but I have known thee.

Joy, Joy, Joy

tears of joy.'