"When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:1-4 ESV
Our God is the God of suddenlies. What is a suddenly? A suddenly is something supernatural! It is something birthed out of God's sovereignty and manifested in His divine providence. There is always something supernatural with God's suddenlies - either for good or for disaster - but always supernatural.
In the book of Acts we read a powerful narrative about one of God's suddenlies. Jesus had told His disciples right before He ascended to heaven in Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." But there was the absolute sovereign promise and God's timing of the providential fulfillment of the promise. So after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven we see the disciples living their lives, waiting on the promise, and faithfully praying together.
The text says "when the day of Pentecost arrived." We live out our days and God has His day. We don't know when that is, thus we must live by faith, trust, and obedience to what we know we are to do. This is not always easy when times get tough or God seems slow. Sometimes He seems to me as slow as molasses! The days go by and nothing happens or things get worse. But never forget that God has a day in the midst of the days that we wait. god had His specific day planned for the fulfilment of His promise: the day of Pentecost.
There are two different Greek words for time in the Bible - chronos and kairos. Chronos is defined as "time indefinitely or a certain time, period, season or space of time." Kairos is defined as "the right season, the right time for action, and the critical moment." Chronos is linear time; the normal day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year passage of time. In chronos times, our walk with the Lord is characterized by our daily faithfulness and obedience to follow His voice. Change is measured as we look back over our lives and see how the Lord’s hand has guided us faithfully one step at a time.
However, at specific times in history, God suddenly and sovereignly steps from eternity into the earthly timeline with a suddenly to effect His perfect plan and purposes. Normal rules that govern time and change are suspended. His supernatural becomes our natural. The intersection of eternity and earthly time produces sudden acceleration that propels us forward into His purposes.
That is what we see here in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. On that day something happens, God's "suddenly"! "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:2-4) I focus on this word “suddenly” to drive home the point that the Holy Spirit is free and sovereign and not bound to any one's timing or technique for will to the timing of His power and purposes. We are to bank on his daily, indwelling presence and grace, walk in the obedience of this faith, and yet pray day and night for the outpouring of power from on high. But we cannot make the Spirit come. When he comes, he comes suddenly. He will never become any one's bellhop. God keeps his own hours. He knows what is best for us. His suddenly birthed the church 2000 years ago and it is still going strong.
God’s ‘suddenlies’ are always dramatic. “Suddenly means that in an unexpected manner, something will happen without us being notified. Suddenlies are hard to understand because of the surprise element. The surprise element creates an emotional response in us. Many times is our waiting for God to move we get weary of looking for a suddenly.” In that context, the word ‘suddenly’ is just so exciting – think about it: one moment, a routine, a trial, a hopeless situation but the next moment that situation can be completely overtaken by events. In fact, God had taken over and is now controlling those events in the most dramatic fashion.
In my own life I have experienced so many wonderful suddenlies of God. I had been a Christian for only a few months when I experienced in the most supernatural way a calling to the ministry. I was lying on a hammock on a hot Mexican day at a beautiful point called Punta de Mita when suddenly God came to me and called me at the age of twenty-two to the ministry. I heard this voice in my head that told me to turn in my Bible to Jeremiah chapter one. I had never read Jeremiah, by the way. So I read the account of God’s call to Jeremiah and when I was finished reading, a voice said to me in my mind, “Bill, you will be my Jeremiah, and I will make you a Pastor.” At that point all I could do is argue with God about how this wasn’t possible and laugh inside at the absurdity of it all. I had barely graduated from high school, I had never held a job for more than a few months, had done drugs for seven years, and my only goal in life had been to travel and surf all over the world. Not to mention the fact that since I had become a Christian I had not even been to a church! Suddenly the whole course of my life changed! Here I write thirty three years later having been a Pastor now for thirty one years. Praise be to God!
Another time I was working as a catamaran repairer for Hobie Cat. one day I was sanding a hull when suddenly I received a vision form the Lord of me praying over a Mexican man in a church surrounded by other Mexicans. I was moved and wondered what it meant. Thirty days later I experienced another suddenly received the exact same vision a second time. As a result my wife
and I went on the mission field to Mexico in 1976. Several months into the trip I was invited to speak in a Methodist church in Puerto Vallarte. So I went to preach and after the sermon I asked people to come up for prayer. One of those who came forward was the man I had seen in my vision and the exact vision was fulfilled with me praying over him and surrounded by other Mexicans.
Oh how often the scripture speaks of God's suddenlies:
In Job - "While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" (Job 1:18-19).
In the Psalms - "Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" (Psalm 73:18-19)
In Proverbs - "A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed-without remedy." (Proverbs 29:1)
In Isaiah - "I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass." (Isaiah 48:3)
In Daniel, Habakkuk, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Thessalonians and the list goes on and on. These "suddenlies" are God's way of showing His awesome power. Just when we think that things will continue on as they have before, just when we think today will be no different than yesterday, just when we think things are hopeless, God shows up and sends us showers of blessings, suddenly. It is one of His favorite things to do.
In the summer of 1871 two women of Dwight L. Moody's congregation felt an unusual burden to pray for Moody "that the Lord would give him the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire." Moody would see them praying in the front row of his church and he was irritated. But soon he gave in and in September began to pray with them every Friday afternoon. He felt like his ministry was becoming a sounding brass with little power. On November 24th, 1871 Moody's church building was destroyed in the great Chicago fire. He went to New York to seek financial help. Day and night he would walk the streets desperate for the touch of God's power in his life. Then suddenly, Moody wrote, “One day, in the city of New York -- oh, what a day! -- I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name . . . I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me the entire world -- it would be small dust in the balance”. He prayed and he obeyed and he waited. But he did not make the Spirit come. He came suddenly. When the Spirit comes in power he comes suddenly -- on his own terms and in his own time.
During the first Great Awakening and the great outpouring of the Spirit in North Hampton, Massachusetts, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennant, and George Whitefield (1734-1743), over 25 to 50 thousand people were added to the churches in New England. This was over 7 to 14 percent of the population. One woman who had been infamous for her immorality was suddenly converted in December 1734. Her life was so radically changed that the whole town was amazed at the power of God’s grace. During the next 6 months 300 people out of a town of 1,100 were converted!
Oh dear reader, remember the God of suddenly. God is not in a hurry, but He is the God of “suddenlies!” Our God is a god of "Suddenlies!" God can suddenly break an addiction. He can suddenly heal your body. He can suddenly give you that promotion. The enemy's goal is to steal your hope. He wants to get you down and discouraged so you will give up and settle for less than God's best. Don't be deceived! No matter how many disappointments you've encountered, God can turn things around for you in a split second of time! One touch of His favor can suddenly restore relationships! One touch of His goodness can solve that problem you're facing today! Just one touch from Almighty God can instantly change your life! When you tell someone about your future and about the plans God is working out for you and they tell you it won’t happen overnight just smile and say, “My God is the God of suddenlies and even while I wait patiently on Him He’s working out those suddenlies for the appropriate time in my life.”
Feeling that God is going to do one of His suddenlies as in the Book of Acts Ch. 2,
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
THE CALL TO DO WHAT WE CANNOT DO AND THE PROMISE THAT WE WILL DO IT
"I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles- to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'" Acts 26:16-18 ESV
In Acts 26 we read of the account where the apostle Paul appeared before King Agrippa and shared his testimony about his conversion and his call to the ministry. He reports the spectacular encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Then he reports the commission that Christ gave him. It’s the words of the commission that are so amazing to me and so relevant the times we live. He makes an incredible statement about evangelism and missions. He says "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me"(Acts 26:17-18). Jesus says: I am sending you to open their eyes.
How does that strike you? This is incredible! True evangelism and missions involves opening non-Christians eyes so that they might see the light, turn from sin to God, receive forgiveness and a place among those set apart by faith in Jesus Christ. Why do people need to have their eyes open? 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” People who don’t believe in Christ are blind. They can’t see Christ as supremely valuable, and so they won’t receive him as their Treasure and so they are not saved. A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. That is the ultimate problem in regards to the sinfulness of man.
Look also at the solution to this condition of blindness and perishing in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is a description of conversion. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”
God causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ. And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is. "And to as many as received him he gave power to become the children of God" (John 1:12).
But what is remarkable about all of this is that though conversion is a sovereign work of God, He uses means. He told Paul that he would be sent to open the eyes of the gentiles. But how, if God opens eyes alone, is Paul going to open eyes? How are we going to open anyone's eyes? Look at 2 Corinthians 5:5: “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul’s role was to proclaim Christ from a heart of love and a life of service. That proclamation is called the gospel in verse 3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.” It’s the glory of Christ and His gospel that spiritually blind people can’t see and spiritually deaf people can’t hear.
Now read again carefully what Jesus says he is sending Paul to do in his gospel-telling ministry in Acts 26:18: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” According to 2 Corinthians 4, people are spiritually blind until God gives them eyes to see, that is, until God causes them to be born again. But here Jesus says in verse 18, “I am sending you to open their eyes.” The point is not hard to see. God opens the eyes of the blind to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ. But he does by sending people to tell the good news from hearts of love and lives of service. We are sent by God to those who are blind in sin, darkness, and unbelief, we tell and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
This is especially important in the light of postmodernism which de-emphasizes proclamation and overemphasizes friendship, service, and loving acts. The fact is we need both, but no one is saved by anything but the gospel . Romans 1:16-17 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Saving faith comes only by hearing the word of God and people are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. Romans 10:17 says. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. The new birth, which is what conversion really is, comes by the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 says , “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God”—followed by the explanation in verse 25: “This word is the good news that was preached to you.”
In other words, God brings about the new birth through the gospel—the good news that God sent his Son into the world to live a perfect life, die for sinners, absorb the wrath of God, take away our guilt, provide the gift of righteousness, and give eternal joy through faith alone apart from works of the law.
Oh what a difference this can make when we as a church and as Christians really believe this! Can you imagine how this would affect our view of people all around us and throughout the world. Would we see more conversions and more people going out to the unreached peoples of the world? Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26:18: I send you to open their eyes. Perhaps you are thinking and feeling a disconnect with what Jesus says. You are thinking I can't open anyone's eyes. I can't open my neighbors eyes, my families eyes, my work places eyes, the Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, Hip Hoppers, Pierced and Tattooed, Intellectuals, Rappers, Crackheads, Suburbanites, and the numerous sub-cultures eyes. Don’t stop because you can’t. Of course you can’t. But the fact that you can’t make electricity or create light never stops you from flipping light switches. The fact that you can’t create fire in cylinders never stops you from turning the car key. The fact that you can’t create cell tissue never stops you from eating your meals. So don’t let the fact that you can’t convert people stop you from telling the gospel.
Jesus has called you and sent you to proclaim His gospel, that is how people are saved and born again and He will use it to open people's eyes. God will do his work through the gospel, and the surpassing power will belong to him and not to us. Be encouraged, Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your inability to make anyone see, for the greatest work in the world: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
I am praying for the Lord to fill my church and my life and you with a passion to open the eyes of the blind. I am praying for the Lord to fill us with a passion to do what God uses to bring about radical conversions to Jesus Christ!
Pastor Bill
In Acts 26 we read of the account where the apostle Paul appeared before King Agrippa and shared his testimony about his conversion and his call to the ministry. He reports the spectacular encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Then he reports the commission that Christ gave him. It’s the words of the commission that are so amazing to me and so relevant the times we live. He makes an incredible statement about evangelism and missions. He says "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me"(Acts 26:17-18). Jesus says: I am sending you to open their eyes.
How does that strike you? This is incredible! True evangelism and missions involves opening non-Christians eyes so that they might see the light, turn from sin to God, receive forgiveness and a place among those set apart by faith in Jesus Christ. Why do people need to have their eyes open? 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” People who don’t believe in Christ are blind. They can’t see Christ as supremely valuable, and so they won’t receive him as their Treasure and so they are not saved. A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. That is the ultimate problem in regards to the sinfulness of man.
Look also at the solution to this condition of blindness and perishing in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is a description of conversion. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”
God causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ. And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is. "And to as many as received him he gave power to become the children of God" (John 1:12).
But what is remarkable about all of this is that though conversion is a sovereign work of God, He uses means. He told Paul that he would be sent to open the eyes of the gentiles. But how, if God opens eyes alone, is Paul going to open eyes? How are we going to open anyone's eyes? Look at 2 Corinthians 5:5: “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul’s role was to proclaim Christ from a heart of love and a life of service. That proclamation is called the gospel in verse 3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.” It’s the glory of Christ and His gospel that spiritually blind people can’t see and spiritually deaf people can’t hear.
Now read again carefully what Jesus says he is sending Paul to do in his gospel-telling ministry in Acts 26:18: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” According to 2 Corinthians 4, people are spiritually blind until God gives them eyes to see, that is, until God causes them to be born again. But here Jesus says in verse 18, “I am sending you to open their eyes.” The point is not hard to see. God opens the eyes of the blind to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ. But he does by sending people to tell the good news from hearts of love and lives of service. We are sent by God to those who are blind in sin, darkness, and unbelief, we tell and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
This is especially important in the light of postmodernism which de-emphasizes proclamation and overemphasizes friendship, service, and loving acts. The fact is we need both, but no one is saved by anything but the gospel . Romans 1:16-17 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Saving faith comes only by hearing the word of God and people are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. Romans 10:17 says. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. The new birth, which is what conversion really is, comes by the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 says , “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God”—followed by the explanation in verse 25: “This word is the good news that was preached to you.”
In other words, God brings about the new birth through the gospel—the good news that God sent his Son into the world to live a perfect life, die for sinners, absorb the wrath of God, take away our guilt, provide the gift of righteousness, and give eternal joy through faith alone apart from works of the law.
Oh what a difference this can make when we as a church and as Christians really believe this! Can you imagine how this would affect our view of people all around us and throughout the world. Would we see more conversions and more people going out to the unreached peoples of the world? Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26:18: I send you to open their eyes. Perhaps you are thinking and feeling a disconnect with what Jesus says. You are thinking I can't open anyone's eyes. I can't open my neighbors eyes, my families eyes, my work places eyes, the Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, Hip Hoppers, Pierced and Tattooed, Intellectuals, Rappers, Crackheads, Suburbanites, and the numerous sub-cultures eyes. Don’t stop because you can’t. Of course you can’t. But the fact that you can’t make electricity or create light never stops you from flipping light switches. The fact that you can’t create fire in cylinders never stops you from turning the car key. The fact that you can’t create cell tissue never stops you from eating your meals. So don’t let the fact that you can’t convert people stop you from telling the gospel.
Jesus has called you and sent you to proclaim His gospel, that is how people are saved and born again and He will use it to open people's eyes. God will do his work through the gospel, and the surpassing power will belong to him and not to us. Be encouraged, Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your inability to make anyone see, for the greatest work in the world: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
I am praying for the Lord to fill my church and my life and you with a passion to open the eyes of the blind. I am praying for the Lord to fill us with a passion to do what God uses to bring about radical conversions to Jesus Christ!
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
THE JOY GIVING POWER OF GRACE
Grace often times in Christian circles is generally considered to be God's unmerited favor, leniency, forgiveness, pardon, mercy towards us in Christ. But grace is not only pardon, it is also power. Grace is the power of God moving into fallen lives and fixing them powerfully overcoming all their resistance and saving them and transforming them. God's grace is meant to have amazing effects in our lives.
One of the great passages that demonstrate the power of grace is 2 Corinthians 8.
"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints- and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." ( 2 Corinthians 8:1-5)
Paul writes to the Corinthian church about the grace of God revealed and the effect that grace had upon the churches of Macedonia. God's grace came down upon the Macedonians. "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia..." (verse1). Notice that grace has been given and Paul says that there is something that grace has done and not done.
"For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints..." (verse 2-4).
What was the effect of God's sovereign grace upon the churches of Macedonia? Grace in the lives of the Macedonians (and in ours) resulted in abundant joy overflowing into willing generosity. Notice their joy was not in circumstances. It came first in "a severe test of affliction". Grace came to them and things got worse. Oh how often times things go worse for us when we are Christians, not better! Not only were they being afflicted, but they were suffering "extreme poverty'. God didn't pour down money. The economy didn't pick up. There was no rise in the stock market. They didn't win the lottery. In short, when they became Christians they were still struggling financially. So circumstances weren't the source of their joy.
They were very strange compared to most of us. And oh how I want to be like them! I guess because often times I am so unlike them. If my circumstances are difficult; if my finances are struggling; the word that would describe me is most certainly not abundantly joyful. But that was what these people experienced. So what is the difference between them and us? They knew God's grace and were experiencing the power and overflow of God's abundant grace lavished and being lavished upon them in Christ. Therefore their joy was not in life itself, money, people, ease, security, or prosperity; it was an overflowing joy in God. Whatever the circumstances were was not the source of their joy. The source of their joy was in God and from God.
What did that grace producing joy produce in their life?
"...have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." (2 Corinthians 8:2-5)
Do you see what has happened? They "overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part". They had fallen in love in God and they had fallen out of love with money. They begged earnestly for an opportunity to contribute to the needs of poor saints. These people are so very different aren't they? They are asking Paul for a second offering to be taken. "Let us give even more to the poor!" Only grace can do that to a person.
John Piper says, "What makes Jesus look valuable is that you, in your love for Jesus, sacrifice yourself for the good of others so that it is unquestionably apparent that your treasure is not on this earth."
What is grace going to look like working in your life? How are you going to live a lifestyle that doesn't just look like a carbon copy of the world?
Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
Good deeds are a part of grace working in our lives and in helping others see the light. But not alone in themselves because lots of people who aren't Christians do good deeds. Note the context of this well known statement of Jesus.
Verses 10-15 show the context of our light.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house."
Our light is a rejoicing and a being glad in the day of persecution. What shines in the world is when you are being beat up by circumstances or other people and you don't murmur, grumble, or avenge yourself, but rejoice. That is the light and salt that people see. The world has never seen anything like this. It cannot do it. But if you do it, the world will awaken. “Where is that joy coming from? It’s not coming from their circumstances.” When good deeds are done at great cost to you and everyone expects self-pity but there’s only joy, you just might say it’s from God. We are to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Cor 6:10) and we do that in the power of amazing grace and the result of that grace is overflowing joy!
When God graces us in our affliction and poverty He is not calling us away from joy but into joy.
Jesus says in John 10:10, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." I have come here for your maximum, everlasting joy." Psalm 16:11: In his presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. John Piper says, "Joy in God overflows in sacrificial, self-denying acts of love."
Truly grace is amazing in not only its pardoning from sin but in its empowering to live joyfully and to sustain us in generously grace giving to others.
Pastor Bill
One of the great passages that demonstrate the power of grace is 2 Corinthians 8.
"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints- and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." ( 2 Corinthians 8:1-5)
Paul writes to the Corinthian church about the grace of God revealed and the effect that grace had upon the churches of Macedonia. God's grace came down upon the Macedonians. "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia..." (verse1). Notice that grace has been given and Paul says that there is something that grace has done and not done.
"For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints..." (verse 2-4).
What was the effect of God's sovereign grace upon the churches of Macedonia? Grace in the lives of the Macedonians (and in ours) resulted in abundant joy overflowing into willing generosity. Notice their joy was not in circumstances. It came first in "a severe test of affliction". Grace came to them and things got worse. Oh how often times things go worse for us when we are Christians, not better! Not only were they being afflicted, but they were suffering "extreme poverty'. God didn't pour down money. The economy didn't pick up. There was no rise in the stock market. They didn't win the lottery. In short, when they became Christians they were still struggling financially. So circumstances weren't the source of their joy.
They were very strange compared to most of us. And oh how I want to be like them! I guess because often times I am so unlike them. If my circumstances are difficult; if my finances are struggling; the word that would describe me is most certainly not abundantly joyful. But that was what these people experienced. So what is the difference between them and us? They knew God's grace and were experiencing the power and overflow of God's abundant grace lavished and being lavished upon them in Christ. Therefore their joy was not in life itself, money, people, ease, security, or prosperity; it was an overflowing joy in God. Whatever the circumstances were was not the source of their joy. The source of their joy was in God and from God.
What did that grace producing joy produce in their life?
"...have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." (2 Corinthians 8:2-5)
Do you see what has happened? They "overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part". They had fallen in love in God and they had fallen out of love with money. They begged earnestly for an opportunity to contribute to the needs of poor saints. These people are so very different aren't they? They are asking Paul for a second offering to be taken. "Let us give even more to the poor!" Only grace can do that to a person.
John Piper says, "What makes Jesus look valuable is that you, in your love for Jesus, sacrifice yourself for the good of others so that it is unquestionably apparent that your treasure is not on this earth."
What is grace going to look like working in your life? How are you going to live a lifestyle that doesn't just look like a carbon copy of the world?
Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
Good deeds are a part of grace working in our lives and in helping others see the light. But not alone in themselves because lots of people who aren't Christians do good deeds. Note the context of this well known statement of Jesus.
Verses 10-15 show the context of our light.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house."
Our light is a rejoicing and a being glad in the day of persecution. What shines in the world is when you are being beat up by circumstances or other people and you don't murmur, grumble, or avenge yourself, but rejoice. That is the light and salt that people see. The world has never seen anything like this. It cannot do it. But if you do it, the world will awaken. “Where is that joy coming from? It’s not coming from their circumstances.” When good deeds are done at great cost to you and everyone expects self-pity but there’s only joy, you just might say it’s from God. We are to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Cor 6:10) and we do that in the power of amazing grace and the result of that grace is overflowing joy!
When God graces us in our affliction and poverty He is not calling us away from joy but into joy.
Jesus says in John 10:10, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." I have come here for your maximum, everlasting joy." Psalm 16:11: In his presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. John Piper says, "Joy in God overflows in sacrificial, self-denying acts of love."
Truly grace is amazing in not only its pardoning from sin but in its empowering to live joyfully and to sustain us in generously grace giving to others.
Pastor Bill
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Why Prosperity Preaching is Deceitful and Deadly
I don't believe in the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. I not only don't believe it, I abhor it!It goes against everything I believe and stand for. It goes against a wartime lifestyle with illusion of peace. It goes against 2000 years of suffering and persecution for the gospel's sake. It goes against the suffering church throughout the world. It is becoming very popular in Africa and South America and that really concerns me, It is prevalent on Christian television and is way to popular in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in our country. As a matter of fact, I believe that it is a false gospel and a great detriment to the true gospel. John Piper has written an encouragement to Pastors and Christians to stay away from this kind of teaching. It may not be popular but I am in total agreement with him. Read this and let your heart be stirred to move away from the mindset of seeking health, wealth, and prosperity and instead move towards the needs of others.
Pastor Bill
The call of the gospel is to a life that counts, not necessarily an easy life. When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is: “If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I would not want in.” In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you. Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. It’s deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like: “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). And it’s deadly because the desire to be rich plunges “people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to preachers of the gospel.
1. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes it harder for people to get into heaven.
Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” His disciples were astonished, as many in the “prosperity” movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even higher by saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They respond in disbelief: “Then who can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23-27).
My question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry focus that makes it harder for people to enter heaven?
2. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that kindles suicidal desires in people.
Paul said, “There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” But then he warned against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against preachers who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid of it. He warned, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
So my question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry that encourages people to pierce themselves with many pangs and plunge themselves into ruin and destruction?
3. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that encourages vulnerability to moth and rust.
Jesus warns against the effort to lay up treasures on earth. That is, he tells us to be givers, not keepers. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).
Yes, we all keep something. But given the built-in tendency toward greed in all of us, why would we take the focus off Jesus and turn it upside down?
4. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes hard work a means of amassing wealth.
Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have. The purpose was “to have to give.” “Let him labor, working with his hands, that he may have to give to him who is in need” (Ephesians 4:28). This is not a justification for being rich in order to give more. It is a call to make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no reason why a person who makes $200,000 should live any differently from the way a person who makes $80,000 lives. Find a wartime lifestyle; cap your expenditures; then give the rest away.
Why would you want to encourage people to think that they should possess wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to keep their lives more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that not add to their generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not possessions, is their treasure?
5. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that promotes less faith in the promises of God to be for us what money can’t be.
The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we have is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
If the Bible tells us that being content with what we have honors the promise of God never to forsake us, why would we want to teach people to want to be rich?
6. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that contributes to your people being choked to death.
Jesus warns that the word of God, which is meant to give us life, can be choked off from any effectiveness by riches. He says it is like a seed that grows up among thorns that choke it to death: “They are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the . . . riches . . . of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14).
Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that Jesus warns will choke us to death?
7. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that takes the seasoning out of the salt and puts the light under a basket.
What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit of wealth tastes and looks just like the world. It does not offer the world anything different from what it already believes in. The great tragedy of prosperity-preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awakened in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the name of Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this, the world simply sees a reflection of itself. And if it works, they will buy it.
The context of Jesus’ saying shows us what the salt and light are. They are the joyful willingness to suffering for Christ. Here is what Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:11-14).
What will make the world taste (the salt) and see (the light) of Christ in us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather, it will be the willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through suffering, all the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus. This is inexplicable on human terms. This is supernatural. But to attract people with promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus. It is not what he died to achieve.
Pastor Bill
The call of the gospel is to a life that counts, not necessarily an easy life. When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is: “If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I would not want in.” In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you. Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. It’s deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like: “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). And it’s deadly because the desire to be rich plunges “people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to preachers of the gospel.
1. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes it harder for people to get into heaven.
Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” His disciples were astonished, as many in the “prosperity” movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even higher by saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They respond in disbelief: “Then who can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23-27).
My question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry focus that makes it harder for people to enter heaven?
2. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that kindles suicidal desires in people.
Paul said, “There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” But then he warned against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against preachers who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid of it. He warned, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
So my question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a ministry that encourages people to pierce themselves with many pangs and plunge themselves into ruin and destruction?
3. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that encourages vulnerability to moth and rust.
Jesus warns against the effort to lay up treasures on earth. That is, he tells us to be givers, not keepers. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).
Yes, we all keep something. But given the built-in tendency toward greed in all of us, why would we take the focus off Jesus and turn it upside down?
4. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes hard work a means of amassing wealth.
Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have. The purpose was “to have to give.” “Let him labor, working with his hands, that he may have to give to him who is in need” (Ephesians 4:28). This is not a justification for being rich in order to give more. It is a call to make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no reason why a person who makes $200,000 should live any differently from the way a person who makes $80,000 lives. Find a wartime lifestyle; cap your expenditures; then give the rest away.
Why would you want to encourage people to think that they should possess wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to keep their lives more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that not add to their generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not possessions, is their treasure?
5. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that promotes less faith in the promises of God to be for us what money can’t be.
The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we have is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
If the Bible tells us that being content with what we have honors the promise of God never to forsake us, why would we want to teach people to want to be rich?
6. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that contributes to your people being choked to death.
Jesus warns that the word of God, which is meant to give us life, can be choked off from any effectiveness by riches. He says it is like a seed that grows up among thorns that choke it to death: “They are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the . . . riches . . . of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14).
Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that Jesus warns will choke us to death?
7. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that takes the seasoning out of the salt and puts the light under a basket.
What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit of wealth tastes and looks just like the world. It does not offer the world anything different from what it already believes in. The great tragedy of prosperity-preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awakened in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the name of Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this, the world simply sees a reflection of itself. And if it works, they will buy it.
The context of Jesus’ saying shows us what the salt and light are. They are the joyful willingness to suffering for Christ. Here is what Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:11-14).
What will make the world taste (the salt) and see (the light) of Christ in us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather, it will be the willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through suffering, all the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus. This is inexplicable on human terms. This is supernatural. But to attract people with promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus. It is not what he died to achieve.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
WHY PREACHING MUST BE FOR THE HEAD AND HEART
Do you have a head relationship with Jesus or do you have a heart relationship with Him? I find that many people I talk with do not a have a heart relationship with Jesus Christ but only a head knowledge. That is why what makes me tick as a pastor is that you would have a passion for the supremacy of Christ in all things in your hearts, not just merely a knowledge of the supremacy of God. Oh for the hearts of people to come alive along with their heads!
The apostle Paul says,
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths' (2 Timothy 3:16 - 4:4).
This text is addressed to a pastor about what he should do with his sheep, not to an evangelist about what he should do with unbelievers. Preach the Word. I love teaching, but that is not the word here. Teaching is part of it, but he says preach, that is: Herald! Announce! And the Word is “All the Scriptures” and “the truth.”
John Piper says "preaching is more than teaching; it is the rising of the preacher’s heart to exult over the exposition of truth. It is both exposition of biblical texts and exultation over the reality in those texts. This is implied in the vocabulary of preaching: heralding and proclaiming and announcing Good news. This form of speech—preaching—is designed by God to correspond to his aim in creation and redemption to be glorified by his creatures, namely, his aim to be known and enjoyed."
That is why God has ordained preaching not just explaining. He has ordained that there would be men who stand before the congregations and exult in God and His word. My aim in teaching is to be alive, zealous, authentic, and passionate to God's word in a way that Christ would be exulted in the use of His word in my proclaiming of His word . To be exulted means to be cherished, treasured, loved, valued, precious, enjoyed, deemed worthy in one's heart.
When I preach to you every Sunday I am not merely a dispenser of information. When Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word," the word for "preach" is a word for "herald" or "announce" or "proclaim". It is not a simple word for teach or explain. It is what a town crier did: "Hear ye, Hear ye, Hear ye! The King has a proclamation of good news for all those who swear allegiance to his throne. Be it known to you that he will give eternal life to all who trust and love his Son." John Piper calls this heralding "exultation." Preaching is a public exultation over the truth that it brings. It is not disinterested or cool or neutral. It is passionate about what it says. God intends preaching by real human beings to inform and awaken. To instruct and inspire. To show people, not just tell them, what relationship of joy and faith in Christ looks like.
Jonathan Edwards explained that preaching—is designed by God to correspond to his aim in creation and redemption to be glorified by his creatures, namely, his aim to be known and enjoyed. What he said has deeply impacted me since the day I first read it five years ago:
God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.
In other words, God desires us to see God and to savor God. You can't separate these. You must see him to savor him. And if you don't savor him when you see him, you insult him. His intent in the word is for understanding with the mind and feeling in the heart. Understanding must always be the foundation of feeling, or all we have is baseless emotionalism. But understanding of God that doesn't give rise to feeling for God becomes mere intellectualism and deadness. This is why the Bible continually calls us to think and consider and meditate and remember on the one hand, and to rejoice and fear and mourn and delight and hope and be glad on the other hand. Both are essential for loving God and worshipping Him.
We live in an age of information overload. There is so much information that we are vulnerable to make what is important trivial and what is trivial unimportant. Oh how dangerous it is for us to get lots of bible information but for it to have little or no effect upon our souls and lives. Many years ago Keith Green asked the question "How can you be so dead when you have been so well fed?"
Pastor Bill
The apostle Paul says,
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths' (2 Timothy 3:16 - 4:4).
This text is addressed to a pastor about what he should do with his sheep, not to an evangelist about what he should do with unbelievers. Preach the Word. I love teaching, but that is not the word here. Teaching is part of it, but he says preach, that is: Herald! Announce! And the Word is “All the Scriptures” and “the truth.”
John Piper says "preaching is more than teaching; it is the rising of the preacher’s heart to exult over the exposition of truth. It is both exposition of biblical texts and exultation over the reality in those texts. This is implied in the vocabulary of preaching: heralding and proclaiming and announcing Good news. This form of speech—preaching—is designed by God to correspond to his aim in creation and redemption to be glorified by his creatures, namely, his aim to be known and enjoyed."
That is why God has ordained preaching not just explaining. He has ordained that there would be men who stand before the congregations and exult in God and His word. My aim in teaching is to be alive, zealous, authentic, and passionate to God's word in a way that Christ would be exulted in the use of His word in my proclaiming of His word . To be exulted means to be cherished, treasured, loved, valued, precious, enjoyed, deemed worthy in one's heart.
When I preach to you every Sunday I am not merely a dispenser of information. When Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word," the word for "preach" is a word for "herald" or "announce" or "proclaim". It is not a simple word for teach or explain. It is what a town crier did: "Hear ye, Hear ye, Hear ye! The King has a proclamation of good news for all those who swear allegiance to his throne. Be it known to you that he will give eternal life to all who trust and love his Son." John Piper calls this heralding "exultation." Preaching is a public exultation over the truth that it brings. It is not disinterested or cool or neutral. It is passionate about what it says. God intends preaching by real human beings to inform and awaken. To instruct and inspire. To show people, not just tell them, what relationship of joy and faith in Christ looks like.
Jonathan Edwards explained that preaching—is designed by God to correspond to his aim in creation and redemption to be glorified by his creatures, namely, his aim to be known and enjoyed. What he said has deeply impacted me since the day I first read it five years ago:
God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.
In other words, God desires us to see God and to savor God. You can't separate these. You must see him to savor him. And if you don't savor him when you see him, you insult him. His intent in the word is for understanding with the mind and feeling in the heart. Understanding must always be the foundation of feeling, or all we have is baseless emotionalism. But understanding of God that doesn't give rise to feeling for God becomes mere intellectualism and deadness. This is why the Bible continually calls us to think and consider and meditate and remember on the one hand, and to rejoice and fear and mourn and delight and hope and be glad on the other hand. Both are essential for loving God and worshipping Him.
We live in an age of information overload. There is so much information that we are vulnerable to make what is important trivial and what is trivial unimportant. Oh how dangerous it is for us to get lots of bible information but for it to have little or no effect upon our souls and lives. Many years ago Keith Green asked the question "How can you be so dead when you have been so well fed?"
That is why we need exultation along with education in preaching and teaching. Jesus said
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. (John 4:23)
The content of exultational preaching is the truth of God’s word and that truth is meant to move the spirit so that preaching expresses the value of what is being heralded. People are changed into God-glorifying lovers of Christ by seeing Jesus Christ in the fullness of his biblical beauty through Spirit-anointed expository exultation. When they see Christ they exult in Christ and the end of exultation is exaltation which is WORSHIP!
Listen to what the scriptures say that preaching does:
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18) We behold Christ in His word and we are changed! Beholding is the way of becoming.
And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD. (1 Samuel 3:21) God reveals Himself by hearing the word. We see God by hearing. We hear in order to see.
Pastor Bill
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