Real Church and Happy Endings

Excerpt from Why We Love the Church

This Sunday's sermon is from 2 Corinthians 5:11-15, which begins, "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men" (NIV).

"Our church doesn't exist to give you ten ways to deal with stress, or to help you become a better person," Pastor Kevin says from the pulpit. "We're here to persuade you. We're here to preach to you."

This, partly, comes from knowing what it is to fear the Lord. Currently, if publishing trends are any indication, we serve a Lord who is our friend, our camping buddy, someone with whom we have intimacy, etc.

As I look around the room this morning, I see a great man with Lou Gehrig's disease, holding hands with his sweet wife. I see another husband just diagnosed with cancer that will probably take his life in six months or so. I see a weird military vet guy who fried his brain on drugs in Iraq, and who we follow out to the lobby when he goes to the bathroom because we're afraid for the safety of our kids. I see my father-in-law who has a degenerative brain disease that has destroyed his intellect and ability to communicate and will take his life before it's all done.

As evangelicals we've become addicted to "happy ending" stories where we go through "x" (hard thing) and then start praying and then -- Shazam! -- God makes everything better and we have a nice, utopian story to tell where we are the hero who ends up with the great job, the great family, the time off, the free plane ticket, the lost purse, or the great healthy kids. The fact of the matter is (often) the happy ending is heaven, and the getting there is a really difficult but formative part of our sanctification. And sometimes, what God wants in the interim is for us to find our happiness, holiness, and identity in Him, rather than our perfect jobs, perfect 2.5 kids (or 6.5 kids in the case of our church), and perfect testimonies.

If I could leave you with one thought, it's this: Go. Go to church. Don't go for the coffee, the presentations, the music, or the amenities. Don't even go for the feelings you may or may not get when you go because, no offense, these feelings may or may not be trustworthy most of the time. Go for the gospel. Go for the preaching. Go to be near to God's Word. . . There are many people leaving the church, and supposedly finding God. But I found Him here, and by His grace, I'll keep finding Him here. I love my church.

From Why We Love The Church, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Moody Publishers, 190-196

What's at stake for God to forgive my sins today.

I John 2:12 - I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.

The substitutionary punishment of Christ in place of sinners satisfied God -- it met His lawful demands and demonstrated His love for sinners. Thus He could impute (credit) Christ's righteousness to us.

If the offering up of the perfect lamb of God was not enough, or if God changes His mind, then it is His name that is at stake -- it would be His reputation rightfully called into question. He should not be trusted or believed or loved or worshipped. He could be ignored as one of the other gods of our imaginations. But the heavenly Father is satisfied and those who believe are declared righteous; the proof is in the resuurection (Romans 4:25). Christ did rise from the dead (unlike all the other blood sacrifices offered up for the covering of sins - Hebrews 9:11-14) and right now He is seated at the right hand of God.

So, when I sin today (and I will -- at this mountain elevation it's rather common), my response is to confess what I know of my sins. It is the Father's job to consider those sins paid for by His Son and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That's the righteous thing for Him to do (I John 1:9). Hallowed be His name.

What a gospel.

-- TWMathis

Control of world leaders -- and our peace and hope

Cyrus was the powerful king of the Medes and Persians. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus.php

Isaiah 44:28-45:12 (excerpts) - It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' . . . Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him. . . I am the LORD and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD and there is no other. . . It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, and I ordained their host.

-- TWM

Discussions and sharing

This is the disturbing legacy of the 1960s and 1970s. A generation brought up on guitars, choruses, and home group discussions. Educated, as one of them put it to me, not to use words with precision because the image is dominant, not the word. Equipped not to handle doctrine but rather to “share.” A compassionate, caring generation, suspicious of definition and labels, uneasy at, and sometimes incapable of, being asked to wrestle with sustained didactic exposition of theology. Excellent when it came to providing religious music, drama, and art. Not so good when asked to preach and teach the Faith.

- Michael Saward, As quoted in Iain H. Murray, Evangelicalism Divided ( Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust: 2000), p. 254.

See How Great A Love

John 13:34,35 - The new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. . . The more we recognize the depth of our own sin, the more we recognize the love of the Saviour; the more we appreciate the love of the Saviour, the higher his standard appears; the higher his standard appears, the more we recognize in our selfishness, our innate self-centredness, the depth of our own sin. With a standard like this, no thoughtful believer can ever say this side of the parousia, 'I am perfectly keeping the basic stipulation of the new covenant.'

-- D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John

The condemnation of affirmation

Romans 1:32 - "And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things (see 1:18-31) are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

John Murray observes, "However severe has been the apostle's deliniation of the depravity of men, he has reserved for the end the characterization which is the most damning of all. It is that of the consensus of men in the pursuit of iniquity. The most damning condition is not the practice of iniquity, however much that may evidence our abandonment of God and abandonment to sin; it is that together with the practice there is also the support and encouragement of others in the practice of the same.

"To put it bluntly, we are not only bent on damning ourselves but we congratulate others in the doing of those things that we know have their issue in damnation. . . Iniquity is most aggravated when it meets with no inhibition from the disapproval of others and when there is collective, undissenting approbation."

[The New International Commentary on the New Testament. . . The Epistle to the Romans]

On pride of fearing man

Isaiah 51:12, 13 - I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies; and the son of man who is made like grass; that you have forgotten the LORD your Maker. . .