A Month of Thanksgiving~A Life of Hearing Sermons

"...we ought to see our relationship to preaching as a lifelong relationship. To be sure, it is good to consider each Sunday how the truth we have heard that day should shape our lives right away, but there is more to it than that. Each of us also ought to be storing up a deep reservoir of biblical convictions over the course of his life. Those convictions may pay off down the road in ways that you never anticipated.

Let us all be reminded of the good counsel that the Westminster Larger Catechism provides about hearing sermons:

Q. 160: What is required of those that hear the word preached?

Answer: It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; mediate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.

Notice that language, 'hide it in their hearts'. The Christian life is, among other things, from start to finish, a life of hearing sermons, and it is vital that we hold on to the truth we have heard. Who knows what the circumstances will be in which you will have to bring forth the fruit of the things you have stored away?

...No disciple is too young to start hiding the truth in his heart. Maybe when he is twenty-eight--or younger--he will find out that he has cancer. That is not the time to start thinking about the goodness, wisdom, and power of God. Far better for him to have those truths already deeply rooted in his soul, thanks to years of faithful preaching and listening."

~Paul D. Wolfe, My God is True

Another Barna Poll and Women Making an Idol of Family

This poll from Barna, released over a year ago, but making its appearance again with a new article from Patheos, has me scratching my head and wondering why we're making the conclusion that women now put their families over their faith. Here's what the Barna president says about the study:

The president of Barna Group, David Kinnaman, offers this commentary on the research. “Some may interpret this research as a false choice: can women be asked to choose between their role as a parent and that of their faith? They see motherhood as core to what it means to disciple and be discipled. Others may conclude this study shows too many women have created an 'idol' of their family, perhaps at the expense of their devotion to Christ.

But then Barna states this in the study: 

Though women project a calm, confident exterior when it comes to their faith, the research suggests their spiritual lives are rarely their most important source of identity.

Can we really assert this conclusion from this study?

I'm not an expert in statistics, and I have not studied the poll at length. There are many things to discuss about it, but here are three things that stand out to me as  major concerns with this study.

1) Let's define Christian: This should be the first question with any of these Barna studies. If the pollster just asks, "Are you a Christian" or "Do you consider yourself a Christian?" without further explanation, we have a mixed bag already and perhaps we should take all Barna polls with a grain of salt.

The Patheos article seems to include Mormons as a viable option under the label Christian. No doubt  Mormons elevate family over EVERYTHING.

2) Is being a follower of Christ a "role?": How many of us think of being a Christian in these terms, or rather, do we think of the roles we have as flowing from who we are in Christ?  There is a HUGE difference between these two perspectives! I think the question is a tricky one, and that women who answer that their most important roles are being wives and mothers should not be assumed to be making an idol of their families. What if the question were posed as a multiple choice? "Out of the following roles, which do you consider most important?" No doubt we would see different results.

Consider this story from Joni Eareckson:

"What's the most important thing you do, Joni?" It was a press conference in Poland. My mind, like a computer, zipped through a list of possible answers: speaking...painting...writing...singing. I clicked off another list: campaigning against a euthanasia initiative on the state ballot, visiting cerebral palsied teenagers, delivering wheelchairs and Bibles to disabled people in Africa. 

All of this is significant to me. Especially since it means exhausting travel and long hours away from home. But what is most important to me? I smiled. Among all the options, I knew.

"Being a good wife to my husband." The group of twenty reporters chuckled. I guessed their thoughts. She can't be serious. Her books are in so many languages...she's speaking here in Poland and in other countries around the world. Surely she's being gratuitous...

Would any of us accuse Joni of putting her role as a wife before being a Christian, or is it clear to us that her role as a wife is so highly valued and made a priority BECAUSE she is a Christian and puts Jesus first?

3) Look around us: If anything betrays the assertion that Christian women have their highest priorities set on family, it's what we see before us every day. Our churches and our culture are so affected by feminism that we don't even recognize the signs anymore. I'm convinced that even many complementarians are really feminists at heart. Feminist ideology is in the air we breath, and we have to push back its lies every day and guard against their favorite question, "Did God really say?"


With love,
Trisha

How to Make the Most of a Sermon

From Puritan minister Richard Baxter, here are ten exhortations regarding "Directions for holy Resolutions and Affections in Hearing."

"The understanding and memory are but the passage to the heart, and the practice is but the expression of the heart: therefore how to work upon the heart is the principal business."

Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.~John 17:17 

1)  Live under the most convincing, lively, serious preacher that possibly you can.   What man that is alive and awake, doth not feel a very great difference between a dead and a lively preacher?

2)  Remember that ministers are the messengers of Christ and come to you on His business and in His name.

3)  Remember that this God is instructing you, and warning you, and treating with you, about no less than the saving of your souls. Come therefore to hear as for your salvation. Can that heart be dull that well considereth, that it is heaven and hell that is the matter that God is treating with him about?

4)  Remember that you have but a little time to hear in; and you know not whether ever you shall hear again. Hear therefore as if it were your last.  How would I hear if I were sure to die tomorrow?

5)  Remember that all these days and sermons must be reviewed, and you must answer for all that you have heard, whether you heard it with love, or with unwillingness and weariness, with diligent attention or with carelessness; and the word which you hear shall judge you at the last day.  (John 12:48)

6)  Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it, and to work your own hearts to those suitable resolutions and affections which it bespeaketh. Therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing..

7)  Chew the cud, and call up all when you come home in secret, and by meditation preach it over to yourselves.  

8)  Pray it over all to God, and there lament a stupid heart, and put up your complaints to Heaven against it. The name and presence of God hath a quickening and awaking power.

9)  Go to Christ by faith for the quickening of His Spirit. Your life is hid in Him, your Root and Head; and from Him all must be conveyed; he that hath the Son hath life; and because He liveth, we shall live also. Entreat Him to glorify the power of His resurrection, by raising the dead; and to open your hearts, and speak to you by His Spirit, that you may be taught of God, and your hearts may be His epistles, and the table where the everlasting law is written.

10)  Make conscience of teaching and provoking others. God often blesseth the grace that is most improved in doing Him service; and our stock is like the woman's oil, which increased as long as she poured out, and was gone when she stopped.

With love,
Trisha

When You Think You're Not Getting Anything Out of Church

I recall one little old lady at a congregation where I served who was very sweet but had a physical problem which caused her to fall asleep whenever she sat down for any length of time. She was very embarrassed about it, and she did everything possible to stay awake. She did not enjoy coffee but she would drink it on Sunday mornings and do everything she could think of to prevent herself from sleeping. But every time she would fall asleep anyway, and she would always apologize to me afterward and tell me that she believed that the sermon had been a good one, judging from the responses she heard from other people. One day she told me, "I am going to be here every Sunday, because it is important for the young people to see that if I can come, they can come. I want to be here as an example to them. And I hope I don't fall asleep." Most of us might be tempted to laugh at the "example" she set, but in her resolve she showed a deeper understanding of the problem. She was getting very little out of worship for herself but the knowledge that she was obeying the Lord and encouraging her brothers and sisters. She received little for herself, but she gave all that was in her power to give. God blessed her and used her in mighty ways to bless the whole congregation.

The one who avoids church because he does not "get much out of it" has a fundamentally selfish and unChristian attitude. We do not worship merely to fulfill our own needs; we are there for the sake of others and to give thanks and praise to God. He deserves our presence and our hearts, whether or not He is pleased to give us anything, for He certainly is not obliged to do so. Our friends and brothers in Christ need our support in worship whether or not they are able to support us in turn. We give without expecting to receive, but the wonderful truth is that we always receive more than we give, whether we realize it or not.
~Steve Wilkins, Face to Face, Meditations on Friendship and Hospitality

How Pastors Wash the Feet of the Little Ones

Maybe you've had that kind of pastor. The one who does his best to appear to like your children, but who doesn't hide very well that his heart isn't much in it. His discomfort around Littles betrays him, and it's obvious he's content to give them a pat on the head and then shoo them away.

But then God gives us pastors who really do love children. They greet them by name and give them a big smile. They generously bestow warm-hearted hugs, ask how the children are doing, and then, of all things, wait for an answer.

They let little ones sit next to them at fellowship meals, not thinking it beneath them to hear incomprehensible chatter or risk being the victim of spaghetti sauce splatter. They even gather up cranky, crying, or just tired children. And they'll soothe them to sleep.

Children have noses for counterfeits. They know the towering figures who simply tolerate them, and they know the ones who delight in them. They know the shepherds who think it beneath them to answer their questions, who have bigger and better things to do and more important people to talk to. They know the heart of a man who smiles when he hears an "amen" from the littlest voices in the congregation and the man who gets annoyed when the chatter of Littles interrupts the recording of his sermon.

And who do you think will have their hearts and ears and minds? It will be the pastors who love the little children. In all of our talk about why children who grow up in the church eventually leave the church, maybe we don't consider enough that some children have never known a pastor who truly cared for their soul, who even knew their name, who loved their chubby, dirt-covered fingers in such practical ways in the early days that they couldn't help but respect and heed his counsel in later days.

Blessed is the congregation whose pastor washes the feet of the little ones and does not hinder them, but draws them to Christ by most brilliantly reflecting His love to them in both word and deed, remembering the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

"That self-examination should be exercised mainly concerning our love, because the best preparation for teaching Christ's lambs is love--love for Jesus and for them. We cannot be priests on their behalf unless, like Aaron, we wear their names upon our breasts. We must love, or we cannot bless."
~C. H. Spurgeon

With love,
Trisha

What Happens in That Small Church Out in the Sticks?

"What happens when a small group of saints gathers in a clapboard community church somewhere out in the sticks? At their call to worship, they ascend to the City of God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. They walk into the midst of innumerable angels (Heb. 12:22). They come to general assembly of the universal Church and into the presence of God Himself (Heb. 12:23). Scripture says this understanding should rattle us--we should start working out our salvation together with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12-13). When we understand what is actually happening in a worship service, our contemporary flippancy evaporates."
~Doug Wilson, A Primer on Worship and Reformation

When No One At Church Is Just Like You

My family is a mixed bag.

Some of us love sweet while others prefer salty. Some of us are fair-haired and light-eyed while others are olive-skinned and brown-eyed. One child loves horses while another prefers dogs. Some of our children love singing. Others do not. Some are natural organizers while some struggle just to keep their sock drawers in order. Some are diligent in their lessons. Others require prodding.

But, in the midst of all of our differences, we've never looked at one another and said, "We're just not enough alike. I must leave this family to find others who are exactly like I am." Instead we remember God has put us here together. He has formed our family according to His perfect wisdom. We learn from each other's differences and meet each other's needs, refusing to let differences be points of division. 

Isn't this what most families do?

And yet, when it comes to our church families, we have different expectations. We want others members to mirror our family size, our season of life, our tastes in books, our disabilities, our introvert or extrovert tendencies, and so on. 

In my own small church body, no two families are exactly the same. Our family has nine children, ranging in ages from 17 to 6 months. Another family has no children at home, but lives with their aging parents, giving them constant, loving care. Some of the families know what it's like to have adopted children or have a child with a disability. We're different, often radically different. 

This used to bother me. I longed to have another mom in the body who was parenting children the same ages as ours, whose family landscape looked more like mine. But the tie that binds is not Sally's liking the same things I do or having a family that mirrors mine, but rather who we are in Christ. 

Paul reminds us that each part of the body is important, and the body suffers if even one part is missing. While he was referring to gifts, the principle applies in other ways, too.

The single woman is part of the body. The mother with many littles is part of the body. The divorced mother is part of the body. The woman who loves theology is part of the body, as is the woman who has no clue about antinomianism or latitudinarianism. No matter how "different" we are, the fact that we've been redeemed means that He has given us the blessing of being just right for one another. Will we choose to be so?

When our eyes are fixed on ourselves, our differences are magnified to divisive proportions. Those differences keep us in bondage to self. They're devices Satan uses to foster discontentment and church-hopping. But when our eyes are fixed on Christ, we see those differences as opportunities--opportunities to learn from one another, love each other, encourage each other, to dwell together in unity.

We see the big picture of making it all about Him and not about Us.

So, when we're looking for a church family, let's not be so quick to find out if it has a singles group, a group for those who hate red jello, or a mothers-of-many group. Rather, let's focus on whether the Gospel is being preached, remembering God's wisdom in forming church families often includes having its members look very different from one another.

With love,

Trisha

How to Judge a Preacher

"May I beg you carefully to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not by his elocutionary powers, not by his status in society, not by the respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his church, but by this--does he preach the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?"
~C. H. Spurgeon

13 Ways to Undermine Your Pastor

Our little church was without a pastor for several years. Because many, perhaps most, of us had not spent much time under a shepherd who knew our names or personally cared for us, I don't think we truly understood what we were missing.

We are a society that rejects authority as we embrace our individuality. We don't view our pastors as shepherds who are leading us and teaching us, and we don't fully embrace the truth that our brothers and sisters in Christ are family. In fact, many Christians today don't think they need either a pastor or a church family. And I'm amazed at how much I've been affected by these errors, and how I'm having to purge them from my mind and my behavior.

D.A. Carson shares that though Paul suffered much at the hands of unbelievers and endured much simply as a church planter, there is no doubt "his most anguished moments come to him from closer to home--from Christians behaving in sub-Christian ways, from false brothers and false apostles undermining his work with innuendo and half-truths."

This made me consider the many ways as believers, knowingly and unknowingly, we undermine our very own pastors.

1) We suspect the worst of them and take everything personally. Perhaps it's something he said, or didn't say, or did, or didn't do. Maybe it's something he changed or didn't change. Assume the best and remember love covers a multitude of sins. Our pastors are sinners who need Jesus just as much as we do. Will we hold them to a standard of perfection?

2) We are ungrateful. Every time I serve our children a meal, it never fails that one of them says, "Thank you, Mommy, for this food. It's very good." Every week, our pastors are feeding us from the Word of God. Shall we not say thank you? Let your pastor know how much you appreciate his dedication to the LORD, to His Word, and His people.

3) We forget or refuse to pray for them. Do we think our pastors don't have feet of clay? That they aren't subject to discouragement and temptation? Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give those who shepherd us is the gift of prayer, fervent, consistent, prayer.

4) We're inattentive and unteachable. Are we diligently listening to the sermon each week, taking notes, if possible, asking questions, too? Do we bristle when the pastor says something we disagree with, and instead of discussing it with him, just dismiss him as not knowing anything? Is all of our blog-surfing and book reading leaving us puffed up and in want of humility?

5) We give more value to the teaching and sermons of "famous" or "well-known" pastors. We need to guard against actively or passively belittling our pastors by comparing them to other pastors. God didn't give you Piper or Carson or DeYoung as your pastor. They don't even know who you are, and they surely don't know your specific needs. Imagine your frustration as a parent if every time you corrected or taught your child, he said, "But Janie's parents said..."

6) We keep them busy with tasks that deprive them of time to focus on pastoral duties: I think this is more common in smaller churches. Our own pastor does so many things outside of traditional pastoral responsibilities, and he does every one of them with such a servant's heart. Perhaps the best way to know if your pastor feels like he's serving tables (Acts 6:2) to the neglect of the Word is to ask him.

7) We gossip about him. Enough said.

8) We consume his time with controversies. This requires discernment. Just this week, our pastor was explaining the Two Kingdoms controversy to us, and he's given me counsel before about certain matters. Most pastors want us to ask questions, but our pastors aren't the internet police. They're our shepherds, and we don't want to be guilty of keeping them from teaching us the Word by asking them to give their opinion on every new "issue" that pops up in cyberspace each week.

9) We ask for counsel and then ignore it.

10) We forget he has a family. Are we actively loving them, praying for them, encouraging them? Do we thank them for the ways they serve and love the body of Christ, for the time they give up with their husband/father so we know the blessing of godly leadership?

11) We refuse to get along with other members. I will tell you that one of my biggest heartaches as a parent is dealing with the conflicts between my children. It grieves me to the core when they don't get along. God has used this to sharpen my perspective of what a pastor must feel when his flock is fighting and to convict me of those times when I've been stubborn and disagreeable. As far as is possible, we must be at peace with one another. We must actively love one another.

12) We're half-heartedly committed to the body. Our attendance is sketchy. It doesn't take much to keep us from going to church. We dismiss church membership as unimportant. We refuse to serve.

13) We're leeches. This is a bit of a summary of many of the above. We suck the life out of our pastors with our demands, our expectations, our ingratitude, our wants and needs. We use him for what we can get out of him, expecting him to give, while having no intention of giving in return...by committing to the body, by being teachable, by praying for him, by loving one another. He is a means to an end.

It is a great privilege to have shepherds who teach us the Word, counsel us in His truths, pray for us, correct us, encourage us. May we give them cause for much joy in this calling, that they count it a delight and not only a sacrifice, that they would say, "I get to, " instead of, "I have to..."

With love,
Trisha

A Minister Without Light and Heat (or What If Joel Osteen Was My Pastor)

Years ago, you would have found me reading books by Benny Hinn. He was kind of like Joel Osteen of today, except he threw in healings and a bit more of the Holy Spirit. He wore expensive suits and had sparkling white teeth, just like Joel, and the foundational teaching of his ministry was the same...more of ME and less of HIM. 

The flesh tells us those are the kinds of pastors we might like to hear each week. So encouraging. So positive. So "you can do anything." If you just believe more, if you just have more faith, then anything is yours. After all, what part of our flesh wants to hear about sin and brokenness and repentance and the gospel?

But feeding on such nonsense leaves you feeling as sick as a toddler who discovers the sugar bowl when no one is watching. Those first tastes are great, but afterwards he's left with pain and misery and a full stomach that couldn't feel emptier.

I found out on Saturday that my sister had been taken to the hospital the night before. She was found unconscious and was admitted to ICU and put on a ventilator. They diagnosed her with pneumonia, and praise God, she's improved since then and all looks well for now.

That news only intensified the place of mourning I was already in, not just for my sister's being so sick, but mourning for the wickedness that resides in me and for the pain and misery we all suffer and cause others to suffer because we're sinners. Anxiety and worry. Family feuds. Selfish choices. Broken fellowship. Ugly words. Grumbling spirits.

What comfort to know that when I walk through our church doors each Sunday, I'm blessed to hear the gospel truth, literally.

When my heart is overwhelmed, my pastor directs me to the Rock, not to the power of positive thinking. When adversity strikes, my pastor reminds me that this "three minutes underwater," as he calls it, is making me more like Christ and that His grace is sufficient. My troubles aren't the result of not thinking enough good thoughts or doing enough good deeds.

When I'm discouraged by my sin, my pastor doesn't encourage me to forget about it and go to my "happy place." He reminds me to fix my eyes on Christ and keep pressing on, knowing He is faithful to finish this good work in me. When I'm mourning over my sin and the sins of others, my pastor doesn't urge me to stop being so "negative," but instead reminds me that it is good to mourn and that in that mourning, I shall be comforted.

When I have sinned against others, my pastor doesn't indulge my petty and endless excuses but rather he calls me to repent and restore fellowship as far as is possible with me. When I'm tempted to surrender to my feelings, my pastor doesn't tell me to trust what's in my gut, but to hold fast to the Word of God, to train myself in godliness and choose what honors Him even though I don't feel like it.

My pastor doesn't sugarcoat this Christian life. Yes, it's full of JOY because we have Jesus and every day we have HOPE because of who we are in Him, but yes, it's full of pain and adversity and struggle because He is faithfully making us more like Christ, and making us like Christ happens more in our three minutes underwater than it does in our mountain top rejoicings. It happens in the dying to self and living for Christ, not in pursuing my best life now.

"If a minister has light without heat, and entertains his (hearers) with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it will not be very likely to reach their souls. And if, on the other hand, he be driven on with a fierce and intemperate zeal, and vehement heat, without light, he will be likely to kindle the like unhallowed flame in his people, and to fire their corrupt passions and affections; but will make them never the better, nor lead them a step towards heaven, but drive them apace the other way."
~Jonathan Edwards

Praise God for ministers who tell us what the gospel truth is each week and remind us they're preaching to themselves as well as to us, who have compassion on us and speak His truths in love, who desire to see us grow in godliness instead of self-satisfaction and self-indulgence.

Praise God for the merciful gift of pastors who shepherd us with "light in the mind and heat in the heart."

With love,
Trisha

**Edwards quote taken from Piper's Desiring God, phrase "heat in heat and light in mind" from Piper to describe Edwards' point

The Power of the Word of God

My biggest concern is the way in which the post-modern mentality is seducing the church, even the Reformed church.  There seems to be a tacit assumption that...a constituent change took place in the nature of human beings, from the manner in which we were created.  Now life is no longer constructed on the basis of truth piercing the soul by way of the mind.  Since about 1970, we have adopted a "sensuous culture" that is all about feelings, about relationships, about everything subjective.  Even truth itself is regarded as subjective rather than objective.  Therefore, truth is whatever you want it to be.  This is the most narcissistic generation in the history of the human race.

Driven by these changes, churches are rushing to alter their approach to the culture, adopting the use of sound bites, entertainment, and that sort of thing.  They are forgetting that the power is in the Word of God, not in methods, and that the Word is addressed in the first instance to the mind.  The Word was intended by God to be intelligible, and only as we understand it does it get into our bloodstreams and into our hearts, and show up in changed lives.

~R.C. Sproul
The Truth of the Cross

Pragmatism in the Church

In a column published some years ago in a popular Christian magazine, a well-known preacher was venting his own loathing for long sermons.  January 1 was coming, so he resolved to do better in the coming year.  "That means wasting less time listening to long sermons and spending much more time preparing short ones," he wrote.  "People, I've discovered, will forgive even poor theology as long as they get out before noon."

Unfortunately, that perfectly sums up the predominant attitude behind much of ministry today.  Bad doctrine is tolerable; a long sermon most certainly is not.  The timing of the benediction is of far more concern to the average churchgoer than the content of the sermon.  Sunday dinner and the feeding of our mouths takes precedence over Sunday school and the nourishment of our souls.  Long-windedness has become a greater sin than heresy.  The church has imbibed the worldly philosophy of pragmatism, and we're just beginning to taste the bitter results.

~John MacArthur 

 

An Attentive Ear

"If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what those conditions were!  And shall we not pay the same respect to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?"

~George Whitefield