Fight Club: Lesson 10- Well Thought of by Outsiders

Often the greatest critics of the church come from those who stand outside of the church. Hypocrisy tends to be their complaint and their reason for keeping a distance from the church doors. The overseer must realize that the church must be concerned about its testimony within the world. This testimony begins with the overseer as he directs the church by Christ’s leading.

It turns out that the church must be concerned with how the world perceives them. Specifically, the overseer must be concerned with exemplifying a reputation that is consistent with Christ. First, Christ was crucified not on the grounds of moral failure but rather upon his proclamation of truth. Therefore, the world must not have legitimate reason to accuse the overseer of moral failure. Rather the overseer should be above reproach within the church and outside the church in order that the world is left with illegitimate accusations.

Ryken notes,

John Chrysostom, the great preacher of Constantinople made an excellent observation about this verse. He pointed out that although Paul and the other apostles were often persecuted, they were never brought up on moral charges. Quite the opposite: “ They were slandered as deceivers and impostors, on account of their preaching, and this because they could not attack their moral characters and lives. For why did not one say of the Apostles, that they were fornicators, unclean, or covetous persons but that they were deceivers, which relates to their preaching only? Must it not be that their lives were irreproachable?”[1]

Discuss: What are some ways that I could seek to open my life to unbelievers? Are their areas of my life that need to change in regard to how unbelievers might perceive me?

Second, Christ is often seen throughout the gospels sitting with sinners and reaching out to the down cast. It was here that Christ was demonstrating love through culturally relevant avenues and yet he remained Biblically faithful. His life was a communication of truth to those who were spiritually and physically in need. The overseer must not simply be a passive example of Christ in the world but also an active example by demonstrating love through meeting the lost with their most precious need, Christ. The overseer must lead God’s church in communicating the Gospel of Christ from Creator to creation by a moral example and by relevant acts of love.

Answer the following questions?

1. What would your non-Christian neighbors and co-workers report about you?

2. Is there evidence that the outsiders opinions of you would be accurate or inaccurate?

3. Do you engage in the affairs of the wider community?

Read: Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, p. 79-101.
[1] Ryken, Phillip. 1 Timothy. (Phillipsburg, NJ: PandR Publishing, 2007) 120. Quoting John Chrysostom, “Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle ot Timothy, Titus, and Philemon” trans. and ed. Philip Shaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First series, 14 vols. (Peabody, MA, Hendrickson, 1994) 13:439.

Thanksgiving with Trinity Joy!


Psalm 145 has been an immense blessing while we have spent a couple sleepless nights at the hospital.

"I will extol you, my God and King and bless your name forever and ever. Everyday I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness."

Being apart of an extended family that has put the fame of God on display by speaking of the wonders of God from one generation to another, I now find myself with great responsibility to lead a family in doing the same. God be praised for a family that has demonstrated to me what that looks like. I hope do the same by falling in debt to grace. God is ultimately the one who puts himself on display because he loves who he is. Therefore I rest in his empowering grace to point my family to the greatness of God which is unsearchable.

Trinity Joy was born November 25, 2008 at 5 am. being 5 lbs. and 14 ounces. I have reason to extol my God and King! ... for a wonderful wife!... and now a new baby girl ... and even for random nurses that hear Chris Tomlin playin' on our computer and are willing to sing along and then to lovingly pray over inexperienced parents... I didn't know what to say to that nurse - I was so surprised at her Christlikeness... I was so surprised at her love. I sat there thinking I have just unexpectedly experienced the love of Christ. My God, my King is good!

Fight Club: Lesson 9- Mature and Humble

Just a reminder: How do you start a fight? Pursue Holiness!
The overseer must not be a recent convert. He must not be “newly planted” in the faith. He needs to sink his roots and develop some maturity in order to develop fruit that might be nourishing to others.

Often times the appearance of maturity and accelerated growth are mistaken for the excitement and zeal of a new convert. New converts must be seen as vulnerable. The seed of the Gospel is often torn from them in an instant. New converts must be more tightly embraced when they have received salvation. Also it is important that “involvement in ministry” does not become the mode of operation for new converts.

Discipleship, mentoring, theological training, or ministry training should be avenues through which the believer seeks to be informed about maturity. However, being informed does not mean that the material has taken affect upon the heart. Therefore, in order for development to take place there must be periods in which the believer is incubated. He must be under the supervision of other leaders who can direct his desires and mentor his character to the point in which his calling can be matured and confirmed before the church and leadership.
Discuss: What has been the most beneficial times of maturation in my life and how so?

The result of placing an immature Christian in a position of leadership is often pride. This pride will lead to unwise dealings with church members and even an unwillingness to be led by other elders. The consequence is condemnation. This is a condemnation that is demonic and of the devil. This condemnation is either the accusation of Satan against the man or it is a similar condemnation that Satan will endure for his pride. Either way, condemnation will be the result of placing an immature Christian in a position of leadership.

Discuss: What are some areas of pride in my life? Is pride ever associated with your desire for the ministry? How do you fight pride?

Answer the following questions:

1. When were you converted?

2. What would you say is level of spiritual maturity?

3. If you asked your wife or a close friend to critique your spiritual maturity what would they say?

4. In what ways do you see pride in your life?

5. Are you sensitive to critique and criticism?

6. Can you submit to the opinions of others when your opinion is different?

Read: Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, p. 50-78.

Carl Trueman Is Tired of All This Talk About Culture

by Thabiti Anyabwile

And I am too. But Trueman is more eloquent commening over at Ref21:

Am I alone in being sick to death of all the trendy talk about `culture'? A biblical approach to reality seems to involve, first and foremost, a commitment to the notion of essences. Culture is very real but, as a social construct it is not the ultimate reality; nor is it, therefore, the ultimate reality. This seems to me the problem with much postmodernism: it's obsession with culture at the expense of essence has created moral chaos. For example, how can one have inalienable human rights when there is no inalienable human nature? Hence the silliness on the left these days where -- surely to Marx's horror! -- moral equivalence arguments are made between feudal genocide, as in Saddam's Iraq, and poverty in post-feudal democracies. Any Marxist knows that capitalist democracy, for all its faults, is superior to feudalism in every way. Christians should take a leaf from the books of the palaeo-Marxists and return to talking about nature and essence, not culture.


What about you? Are you with Trueman, or do you think the current Christian fascination with 'culture' and 'engaging culture' has merit and steam?

Get Better at Contextualization

from Resurgence:
Jonathan Dodson

Contextualization and church planting aren't anything new. These have been practices of the missional church for centuries, and in comparison to what is passed off as contextualization today, our early planting fathers put us to shame. Consider Gregory the Great and his partner Augustine of Canterbury (not St. Augustine of Hippo).

Gregory & Augustine
Gregory the Great (540-604) was the perhaps the most influential bishop of the 6th century. Some have argued he was the first pope, in which case he would not have been the best bishop. All this is debated. Nevertheless, Gregory would have made a great church planter, but instead, he was a kind of church planting coach. Gregory sent missionaries to Britain to “make the Angles into Angels". His choice emissary was Augustine of Canterbury, who, with 40 monks, set up mission base at in England. Like many of his Celtic predecessors, Augustine realized the strategic value of having a mission training and sending center among his target people. I'm willing to bet it was much better than most "church planting residencies" we have today. Why? He had better missiology, better contextualization.

Principles for Better Contextualization
Augustine implemented the great missiology he received from Gregory. That missiology, as Tim Tennent has pointed out, can be summarized with three words: Adaptation, Gradualism, and Exchange.

Adaptation - Adopting a cultural form for Christian purposes. In Augustine's case, he adopted heathen temples and turned them into church buildings. Gregory wrote to him: "Detach them from the service of the devil and adapt them for the worship of the true God." Many Christian leaders and Christians would frown on using a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall for a church building because their conception of church is so narrowly conceived. Since my first day in Austin, I began praying that God would give us the abandoned male strip joint called La Bare for our church. We are currently meeting in a downtown theatre where we frequently pick up beer bottles off the floor before people arrive. The bathrooms are covered in graffiti and smell terrible, but the aroma of Christ fills the Hideout Theatre every week and is slowly changing that part of the city. Not only have we detached the theatre from less than admirable ends, we have also boosted sales in the adjoining coffee shop, ministered to the homeless outside, and adapted the space for the worship of the true God. Adaptation isn’t about being cool; it’s about adopting cultural forms, creating common cultural space for mission, and using these forms for Christ-honoring purposes.

Gradualism - Implementing Christian ideals slowly, recognizing that individuals are undergoing an entire worldview shift. Don't expect radical holiness from your new converts. If they have embraced Christ but still smoke pot or occasionally drink too much, don't beat them up for their behaviors. Instead, shepherd their hearts, lead them into the gospel, and allow their inner joy to transform their outer joys. Gregory wrote: "If we allow them these outward joys, then we are more likely to find their way to the true inner joy... It is doubtless impossible to cut off all abuses at once from rough hearts, just as a man who sets out to climb a high mountain does not advance by leaps and bounds, but goes upward step by step and pace by pace." Allow for the gradual transformation of the gospel, especially in post-Christian contexts. What you think is normative holiness, probably isn’t the norm. It’s not about leaps and bounds, but steady advance in grace.

Exchange - Creating an entirely new cultural form in exchange for an existing idolatrous one. It is one thing to use pagan temples for church buildings, it is quite another to participate in pagan sacrifices. For example, if your people consistently go to happy hours to get wasted and have a social life, create a more God-honoring context for socializing. Gregory wrote: "People must learn to slay their cattle not in honour of the devil, but in honour of God and for their own food..." Acts 29 and The Resurgence have done a really good job of stimulating community through media. Just consider The City, Mars Hill Church's networking site, and The Resurgence’s videos and blogs. Create new cultural forms and exchange them for sinful ones for the sake of the gospel.

Six Ways to Engage Culture

by Jonathan Dodson
In a recent interview, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright surprisingly remarked: "We're so obsessed about debunking Bush in this country that we don't spend time on any other subjects. That's a little depressing." Wainwright's point is that many Americans neglect a whole range of cultural issues, often neglecting political engagement for finger-pointing.

What's more depressing is that many Christians are just as guilty of this charge as non-Christians. As a result, there are few citizens who think through cultural issues critically, and even fewer who think them through redemptively. Here are six ways to promote critical and redemptive engagement with culture.


1. Engage culture prayerfully. I'm not suggesting that we should actually bow our heads and recite a prayer before reading a newspaper or book, watching TV or a movie, or going shopping, though that certainly wouldn't hurt. Instead, we are to live life and engage culture in a spirit of dependence upon God; we are to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). We should approach culture just as we should approach all things: prayerfully.What should we pray? We should thank God for the gift of culture, confessing that all cultures contain truth, beauty, and virtue, asking Him to help us recognize and rejoice in these good gifts, which come down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Alternatively, all cultures also disdain truth, beauty, and virtue. Thus, we are dependent upon God to enable us to recognize and reject those things that are harmfully false, ugly, and immoral. By asking God to give us the perspective of His Spirit, "the Spirit who searches out all things, even the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:10), we can begin to discern between the things which are true, beautiful, and good and the things that are false, ugly, and evil.

2. Engage culture carefully. When approaching any given issue, from parenting to politics, we all have our biases. In order to engage culture well, we must strive to avoid the paths of both the sectarian and the secularist, of both blind rejection and uncritical acceptance. This will require careful investigation into the issues we face, taking the opposing view seriously and weighing its merits. Make a habit of hearing both sides of an issue before you baptize your opinions. Be slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19).

3. Engage culture biblically-theologically. Why hyphenate biblical and theological? Why not just say "think biblically"? Well, the plain fact is that the Bible does not explicitly address most cultural issues. It does not tell you who to vote for, which school to go to, what movies to watch, whether or not you should date, whether or not to abort your baby, or how to respond to cloning. Instead, the Bible offers theological principles which we can appropriate in order to form opinions and convictions about cultural issues. For instance, there is no verse in the Bible that reads: "Thou shalt not have an abortion." However, the Bible does inform us that God is the author of life and that to take human life is murder, which is prohibited by God. The circumstances surrounding abortion can be complex. A mother's life may be threatened if the life of the baby is not taken. The Bible does not say, "Preserve the mother's life." However, there are principles and practices in Scripture that can help us make wise decisions about cultural and ethical dilemmas.
The problem, however, is that we often start with cultural assumptions about what is right, beautiful, and good and go to the Bible to prove them. Instead, we need to bring cultural questions about what is true, good, and beautiful to the Bible, reflect on them theologically and then prayerfully, and carefully form our opinions. Don't begin with cultural convictions and end with biblical proof-texts; end with cultural wisdom by beginning with biblical-theological reflection. Start with the biblical text and reflect theologically on cultural issues. Move from Text to Theology to Culture, not the other way around.

4. Engage culture redemptively. Strive to connect your theological reflections regarding culture to redemption. We can redemptively engage culture in two ways: practically and positionally. To practically redeem, identify what is broken, what is in need of redemption, and take restorative action. Ask yourself questions like "How can I bring the gospel to bear on this issue?" or "How can I restore, forgive, or reconcile in this situation?" For example, if you come to the conviction that abortion is ugly and immoral, think about how you can help those who are suffering from the devastating affects of abortion. Don't just debate others. Volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. Learn how to counsel mothers. Don't become self-righteous and inactive; practice your cultural convictions. Live them out redemptively.
Our practice should flow from our position in Christ. Our actions ought to reveal our redeemed identity, not form our identity. Consider the danger of mistaking your newly-formed habits for who you are. For instance, do you think of yourself now as an environmentalist or as a citizen of Zion with an environmental conscience? Do you draw significance from being a "pro-lifer" or from being new creation in Christ Jesus? Ask yourself, "Am I confusing my practice with my position?" or "Am I finding my significance in what I do instead of who I am in Christ?" Guard yourself from subtly allowing cultural convictions to take the place of your identity in Christ. Ground your identity in the gospel and your practice will be more redemptive and more honoring to the Lord.

5. Engage culture humbly. Recognize that you have much to learn from a given culture. Read, converse, and reflect on cultural issues with a teachable heart. Ask God to shape your convictions through whomever or whatever He wills. Avoid proud dogmatism and cultivate humble conviction. Don't put others down who believe differently from you. Consider others more important than yourself without surrendering your convictions. Yet, be willing to revise your opinions through a process of Text-Theology-Culture.

6. Engage culture selectively. Realize and embrace the limitations of your own time, experience, and interests. Spend your time wisely. Don't sacrifice time with God, church, or family in order to become more culturally savvy. Everyone has been created differently, to live a unique life. Make the most of your experience by redemptively engaging culture, but try to avoid making the experience of others your own. There are too many issues in the world for you to become an overnight expert on Christ and culture. Be selective about what you engage.

Summarizing the Six Ways
When engaging culture prayerfully, we depend on the wisdom that comes from the Spirit who searches out all cultures, who can enable us to recognize and rejoice in what is true, beautiful, and good, and reject or redeem what is false, ugly, and immoral. As a result, engaging culture can become an act of communion with God. Relying on the wisdom of the Spirit will also mean careful investigation of cultural issues, being critical of our own biases while maintaining an open ear to the arguments of others. However, we're not left to navigate the turbulent waters of our culture with only prayer and reason. God has given us his Word, a divine and authoritative Text from which we can glean wisdom and theological principles to engage culture.
When wrestling with issues, we must be careful to bring questions, not assumptions, from our culture to the Word, following a pattern of Text-Theology-Culture. This biblical-theological engagement with culture should always lead to redemptive action, restoring what is ugly and immoral from our position as accepted children of God, citizens of Zion. In turn, we can engage culture humbly and selectively, recognizing our limitations and rejoicing in our unique opportunities to engage the world around us.
Finally, try to practice these six ways of engaging culture not just as an individual but in community. To put a spin on Rufus Wainwright's words: Only when the Church in this country becomes obsessed with glorifying God in all things will we critically and redemptively engage our culture on all kinds of subjects.

A Believer's Identity


Recently I have found a deep sense of longing for many of my friends who have been wallowing in the wasteland of purposelessness. Their days are filled with mundane routine. The routine of getting up late, thinking about cracking open the Scriptures, but just getting swept away in the hustle and bustle of daily activity. So off to work they go meandering about their responsibilities while feeling a deep sense of dissatisfaction:"who am I and what am I doing here?". They find no contentment in what they do. It's just another day crunching numbers, organizing warehouses, doing paperwork and heading back home. So is this all their is to life? Mundane Routine!?

Well, life can be routine but it doesn't have to be mundane routine. The difference is that as believers, our identity and functionality does not end with responsibilities at a company. In fact, our identity is first and foremost in Christ which makes everything we do at a company significant. Now in Christ each number I crunch, each strategy of organization, and every page of paperwork is now an avenue through which Christ in you can be manifest to a perishing workplace.
Christ in you makes everything significant because it stands in glory to the one who made you; who fashioned you with all the faculties to make glorious the mundane. Not only has are you made to put Christ on display through routine jobs, but you have a greater identity and functionality in the Christ's community. The church should never be neglected when considering our identity. Christ has purchased us to the church to meet one another's physical and spiritual needs as well as to have our needs met. He has fit you into his community with purpose and significance. Thus, your functional responsibility in Christ is to seek to met the spiritual needs of your brothers and sisters. It means asking hard questions and being willing to give honest answers. It means being humbled and being a means of grace that leads others to humility in Christ.

We are in fact a peculiar people whose functionality and identity are fundamentally found in Christ. But since in Christ we are purchased to his community, our identity and functionality are flushed out through Gospel-centered relationships in him.

So if you have been wallowing in the wasteland of purposelessness get yourselves into Christ's community and begin living out Christ in every number crunched, every organizational strategy, and every paper filed. You are significant in Christ! To rely on identity and significance in anything else would be cheating yourself. For you were created for nothing less than an infinite God!

Attempting to do the Impossible!

I had the opportunity to spend my college summers working road construction. I remember one instance in which the backhoes, dump trucks and scrapers were clearing out ten feet of dirt to get it down to were we could begin building the road up to grade. I was directing traffic making sure the dump trucks weren't getting in the way of the scrapers and vice versa when suddenly a black chevy came roaring onto the job site. We all knew it was the owner of the company who always confused whatever harmony we had already established. So sure enough, the owner started shouting orders and before you knew it the Foreman got hit by the backhoe; the trucks suddenly began running different routes and I was stuck in the middle of a lot of confusion. That's when our eyes met. In mid-sentence he began stomping his way to me with his finger pointing at me. "Why aren't you taking the *&%#$ grade!" he shouted. I told him I would get right on it, however the road still needed ten feet of dirt taken off of it before grade could be measured. Fifteen minutes later one the owner sidekicks showed up on the site with all the survey equipment to take grade. So I was supplied with all the equipment to do the job but the job was impossible to perform. I was left with two choices. 1.) don't do it or 2.) pretend to do it. So after a quick conversation with the Foreman we began faking it until the boss left. Although he had given me all that I needed to accomplish the job I still couldn't do it.

Often times our spiritual lives are like this. We have been commanded to do the impossible. As incapable as we are in ourselves, we wallow about compromising biblical commands or pretending we can do it through external conformities. Hence, legalism and relativism are the spiritual escape routes. It's often in these positions that we forget about grace! All of the biblical imperatives of Scripture are accompanied with the indicatives. In other words, God calls us to Gospel centered lives but he doesn't leave it there. He supplies all that we lack. In my situation on the job site their was no foreseen way out of the predicament. However, when the loving call of God comes upon us, and we are asked to live out Christlikeness in this dark world, he supplies GRACE! - the ability do the impossible. So fall in debt to grace and may God be glorified.

So what do ya think?



If you can't get this video see http://theresurgence.com/interview_with_demon_hunter_the_band

So what do you think? Can Christians redeem culture? If so, can they redeem heavy metal or hip hop?

Coming from a fundamentalist background this goes against my grain. However, as I have grown I am beginning to realize that being in the world will inevitable end in syncretism, sectarianism or submersion. Syncretism adopts the value systems of the world. Sectarianism builds up walls like monasticism and secludes itself from the world and its ways (more of the fundamentalist ideal), but submersion seeks to engage culture with an understanding of a biblical worldview in which the love and truth of Christ is embodied before a perishing society. But even so, what are the biblical parameters that guide our engagement with culture?

Total Church Conference

From Resurgence...
The Audio for The Total Church North America Conference 2008 has now been uploaded. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis recently published a book - "Total Church" with Re:Lit. This conference is the result of the ideas presented in the book



Taking it With You

(Just notice Chandler's introspection about his sanctification; we all need to be wrestling through sanctification with this kind of introspective intensity)Nov05
Philippians 1:6: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

I could be wrong about what I’m about to post. I have given it some thought and decided I would write about it despite the fact that I usually do my wrestling internally and with good friends rather than post my young thoughts on the Web. So grace would be appreciated. Before I get started let me give you a little background:

It’s been 16 years since God, in His predestined, powerful plan, allowed my soul to experience “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” He grabbed hold of every part of me and has absolutely ruined me for anything but Him. The process of sanctification has been and still is quite often a very difficult one. No one told me (or maybe they did) that Jesus wanted my heart. I thought there was going to be some behavior modification and some new friends but I didn’t understand how aggressively, ruthlessly and passionately He was going to search and destroy in me anything that wasn’t of Him. Nor did I understand how dark my heart truly was and how out of fear, pride and arrogance I would argue, complain and resist almost every advance of the Holy Spirit to reconcile every part of my being into holiness.

Let me give you some family background. Most of my dad’s life has been difficult. He was abused and neglected, abandoned and ignored by the people who should have loved and seen in him the beauty that’s so easy to see. He raised me the best he could for where he was. He loves me, and I love him. I know this deeply. But what his dad struggled with, he struggled with and although I feel like by God’s grace alone I walk in an unbelievable amount of victory over the things that have destroyed Chandler men for the last 100 years, I do at times feel those things warring in me which brings me to my thought.

Audrey and Reid, my two children, have been such gifts to Lauren and me. That little girl and little boy grabbed a hold of my heart the second they took in the gift of breath. I don’t know where you are in life or if you have children or not but I find the fact that my sin directly effects my children to be mortifying. I ask our great God and King almost nightly that He would protect my children from my sin, that they would never see in me hypocrisy or feel provoked to anger. I ask Him to help me with patience, gentleness and to hide from them my pride and idolatry while giving me the grace to acknowledge often that “God is still working on Daddy.” I want the specific struggles that have haunted my bloodline to go into the ground with me. I want to fight, wail and pray. I want to “hold fast the confession of my hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” I know that Audrey, Reid and the child growing in Lauren’s womb will have their own fights. The world is fallen, depravity is real but these specific struggles…I want, I hope, I pray that I might, like Moses, die on the mountain as they walk into the promise land. I hope this post makes sense.

Fight Club: Lesson 8 - Leaders in the Home

The Scriptural qualifications of an overseer do not come overnight; rather they require practice and experience. The home is a wonderful way to hone the skills of leadership and care. Hence if a man is going to be a good leader within the family of God he must first demonstrate leadership qualities with his own family. He must keep his home managed and nurtured.

The overseer must develop a balance between managing or supervising his home as well as caring for his home. If he simply manages his home, he becomes an authoritative figure who organizes well but inevitably exemplifies a disinterest in fulfilling the heart-felt needs of his family. A man who errs on the management side will come across very cold and unloving.

However, if the man becomes all about nurturing the hearts of his family without management, he becomes the feel-good-raise-your-self-esteem guy. He will typically become friends with his children rather than their dad. Instead of being a friend, he should be the leader, protector, counselor, guide, and comforter.

Discuss: On a spectrum beginning with management to care, where would my personality fall? What could I do to be more balanced?

In verse 2 of chapter 3, Paul mentions that an overseer must demonstrate fidelity to his wife. Now in verse 5, Paul has concern for the children and their relationship to their father. The father must be dignified and respectable in how he embraces his role but also the children should be respectful to their father. Therefore these relationships should flourish with mutual respect.

This does not mean that an overseer must have a perfect home. He will be imperfect and his children will be imperfect yet he must strive to be dignified and respectable through the difficult circumstances of life and his children should seek to demonstrate respect despite the difficult circumstances of life.

The family is the microcosm of the church family. If an overseer demonstrates balanced leadership in supervising and nurturing his family well, by God’s grace he will also have the wisdom to do so in the church family.

Answer the following questions:

1. Are you attentive to your home? Are you involved in the life of your family physically and emotionally?

2. Do you care for your children and how?

3. Do your children submit to you?

4. Would your children say that you are qualified to serve as an elder?

5. If you are single, what is your attitude toward children rearing?

Read: Deuteronomy 6 and Proverbs 1-9 and note the father’s responsibilities, and methods of communicating life situations to his children.

The Cross and Christian Ministry: by D.A. Carson

Just some excerpts: Chapter 4 - 1 Corinthians 4

Only rarely do those who dream of leadership, but who have never experienced it, think through the responsibilities, pressures and temptations leaders face. Almost never do they focus on accountability, service and suffering.

Christian Leadership means being entrusted with the "mysteries" of God.(4:1-7)

1. Christian leaders are 'servants of Christ'. They see themselves simply as servants and want other Christians to see them that way, too.

2. The gospel itself is the content of this mystery, God's wisdom summed up under the burden of Paul's preaching: Jesus Christ and him crucified.

What is required in some sense of all believers is peculiarly required of the leaders of believers. There is a difference of degree.

Those who want to be leaders in the church today, then, must begin by recognizing that there is no special, elitist qualification.

What it means to be a servant of Christ is to be obligated to promote the gospel by word and example, the gospel of the crucified Messiah.

In the West, we must repent of our endless fascination for "leadership" that smacks much more either of hierarchical models or of democratic models.

Christian leadership must prove faithful to the one who has assigned them their fundamental task (4:1-4).

There is only one person whose "well done!" on the last day means anything. In comparison, the approval or disapproval of the church means nothing. It is not even your own estimate of your service that is important. Feeling good about your ministry may have some utility somewhere, but surely it has no ultimate significance. You may think more highly of your service than God does. But if you are constantly trying to please yourself, to make self-esteem your ultimate goal, then you are forgetting whose servant you are, whom you must strive to please... It is the Lord who judges.

Those who follow Christian leaders must recognize that leaders are called to please the Lord Christ- and therefore they must refrain from standing in judgment over them (4:5-7).

...it is also important for the rest of the church to see them as ultimately accountable to the Lord Christ, and therefore to avoid judging them as if the church itself were the ultimate arbiter of ministerial success.

One-upmanship among those redeemed by a crucified Messiah is repulsive.

John Piper's Heart in the 2008 Election

Preach the Word!


Romans 6: Union with Christ

Our position in Adam has been satisfied in our Federal position in Christ. So how are we to live? Is our position just a static positional reality in Christ? Do we just get out of jail free and that ends what Christ has achieved for now?

Romans 6 tells us otherwise! Yes, our union with Christ involves our justified position before a holy God. Yes, our union with Christ will one day result in a glorified body. But now, we participate in one of the most dynamic verities of all of Scripture! God has designed his grace to be magnified in our lives NOW! Of course this grace is not simply a grace of forgiveness, but it is a grace that frees our faculties from the bondage of unrighteousness to victorious Christ-like living.

We are privileged through our union with Christ to put him on display in a dark world. Just as John 1 speaks of the Light that entered time and space, searing the darkness with supernova-like intensity, so our lives now actively stand as beacons for Christ.

How is this accomplished? It is accomplished in moment by moment indebtedness to the infinite bounty of grace purchased up by Christ. Recently, I was sitting in a seminary class where one asked about our indebtedness to Christ. The response to the question, sadly, did not place indebtedness in a positive light when it is in fact one of the most glorious dynamics of the Christian walk. Indebtedness to God's grace is exactly how we are to live - moment by moment accruing debt to God with no sense (at all!) of guilt. Why? So that God might be magnified! God is achieving his glory through our culpable inability to gain righteousness through justification and now through our inability to conquer sin and live out righteousness moment by moment in sanctification.

We are under GRACE! in Christ. So live out your union with him by falling into further debt to his grace so that you find Christ-like satisfaction in magnifying the Father who has put Christ forward as the purchasing token of grace.

King of Kings

The sovereignty of God is an unfathomable reality, "for we merely know the edges of his ways". In his meticulous control over all things at all times God allows his stated purposes to be assaulted. And in doing so, He glorifies himself by demonstrating the magnitude of his unshakable control over everything - even over rebellious assaults.

Ps 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

For believers, may the sovereignty of God never give us a thought of sinful compromise; perhaps by thinking he will use our sin for good anyhow. The fact is the King of Zion has purchased you with his blood. He rescued you from the bondage of sin and now brings you into union with him to walk as he did, to love as he loved, to please him as he pleased his Father.
Yes, God maintains sovereignty over sin and will use it to magnify himself but the sovereign end of sin is devastation.

Ps. 2:7 I will tell of the decree:The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;today I have begotten you.8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,and the ends of the earth your possession.9 You shall break [2] them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”

So how should we respond to God's sovereignty?

Ps 2:10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the Lord with fear,and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son,lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled.Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Rev. 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in [4] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Can Our Sins Mess Up God’s Plans?

October 29th, 2008 by Mark Altrogge

Sin can really mess up our lives, not to mention send us to hell.

Our sins play havoc with us, and sometimes we wind up eating the fruit of our disobedience for years. Sometimes it can seem like we’ve derailed God’s design for our lives and now he’s had to opt for plan B. But that is simply not true.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)

ALL things work together for good, including our sins.
God is in no way responsible when we blow it, for God is not the author of sin. But somehow even our worst sins and mistakes fall under the umbrella of his supreme plan for our lives.
God is so awesome he can take our wickedness and use it to accomplish his purposes. When Jacob duped his father and swindled his big brother Esau, God used it to fulfill his prophecy that the older would serve the younger. When Joseph unwisely boasted of his dreams to his brothers, God used his foolishness to provoke his brothers to sell him to slave traders who dragged him to Egypt where God exalted him to spare thousands from starving, including his scheming brothers.

When Jonah fled in the opposite direction from where God commanded him, God used Jonah’s rebellion to reveal himself to pagan sailors on the ship he’d taken:
Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. (Jonah 1:8-10)

David began his relationship with Bathsheba with adultery, deception and murder. Yet God gave them Solomon, author of Proverbs and one of Israel’s greatest kings. Not even the worst sins can stymie God’s purpose.

Regret can easily slide into self-pity. And excessive regret is an insult to God, because we are saying what Christ did on the cross was somehow not enough to remove all our guilt. Excessive regret is also an insult to God’s sovereignty, because we are saying that our sins are too hard for God to turn to good.

Now DO NOT go out and sin, thinking God will use it for good. For sin has painful consequences. But if you believe your sins have ruined God’s plans for you, know that the cross of Christ and the power of God is infinitely greater than your offenses. God hasn’t opted for plan B.

Mundane is Glorious

October 20th, 2008 by Mark Altrogge

But we urge you, brothers, to [love one another] more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1 Thess 4.10-12


You probably won’t hear this verse read at many college graduation ceremonies. Keynote speakers usually encourage graduates to aspire to greatness, not to live quietly and mind their own affairs.
When I first believed in Christ, I dreamed of becoming a Christian performer, singing before thousands at Jesus festivals. I didn’t yearn to trudge off to work every day in the same office for the next 25 years, get married, have kids, go to Little League games, serve in the church, then die. That seemed so ordinary, pedestrian, and bland. But there’s this little thing called making a living. So I became an elementary art teacher, bouncing among five different buildings, teaching buck-toothed kids how to cut out hearts, carve soap animals and make construction paper Christmas trees.I got married, had kids, went to Little League games for 19 years, and served in our church, where I’ve worked in 2 offices since 1980.
Most Christians lives aren’t remarkable. Most of us aren’t speaking at conferences, writing books or rocking at festivals. Most of us work at rather humdrum jobs, or labor with little thanks in our homes serving our families. We faithfully plod away, going to care groups and serving our church.
If someone made a movie about most of us it would probably be rated “B” for “boring,” or “U” for “uneventful”. But when, by God’s grace, we “live quietly”, and mind our own affairs, and work with our hands, God is honored. He’s no more glorified by the pastor preaching to thousands than he is by the Mom trying to get her one-year-old to eat his Gerber peas for the hundredth time. He’s no more blessed by the man who leads thousands in worship than by the dad who runs a high lift all day, plays catch with his kids after dinner, and falls asleep reading a Bible story to his kids before bed.
Mundane is glorious in the kingdom of God. Because it takes God’s grace to live quiet lives of faithfulness, serving, and loving. Aspire to do all you do, no matter how commonplace, for God’s glory.

Fight Club: Lesson 7 - Not a Lover of Money

From the selling of indulgences to the prosperity gospel, the church has been ravaged by what Paul calls “lovers of money” or those “greedy for filthy lucre”. Although we would never categorize ourselves among those of the prosperity gospel, we can be much more subtle at “earning” indecent/dishonorable gain. The overseer must fight these selfish desires. He must exemplify diligence in his work ethic and seethe with honorable motives. The overseer is an honest worker with healthy desires.

Discuss: What types of materialistic desires compete with your faith in your service to the Lord?

Paul describes for Timothy those who use the gospel for gain. He says, “They are puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissensions, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved of mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” (6:4-5) Paul goes on to exhort Timothy with contentment. He says, “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing in to the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”(6:6-8). In verses 9 and 10 Paul teaches Timothy that loving money results a plethora of others godless desires which make a shipwreck of the faith. Therefore in verse 11 Paul exhorts Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith”.

The overseer must fight off competing desires that would attempt to diminish holy affections for Jesus Christ and his church. Richard Baxter writes,

Nor is man fitted to be a minister of Christ who does not have the proper public spirit towards the Church. He needs to delight in its beauty, long for its happiness, seek for its good, and rejoice in its welfare. He must be willing to spend and to be spent fo the sake of the Church.[1]

Discuss: Theologically, how do we fight for Christ-centered affections?

Answer the following questions:

1. Do you give generously and sacrificially?

2. Are your investments heavenward or earthly-minded?

3. What is your philosophy about gain in this life?

4. Are your professional and personal decisions calculated to pursue gain?

5. Do you show more regard for money and ‘stuff’ than people?

6. How does your perspective of money affect your outlook on the church’s financial decisions?

Read: Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, Satan’s Devices to Keep Souls from Holy Duties, To Hinder Souls in Holy Services, To Keep Them Off From Religious Performance, p. 102-141
[1] Baxter, Richard. The Reformed Pastor. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2007.

Some Questions to Ask When Considering a Job


By John Piper January 14, 1997

1. Can you earnestly do all the parts of this job “to the glory of God,” that is, in a way that highlights his superior value over all other things? “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

2. Is taking this job part of a strategy to grow in personal holiness? “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

3. Will this job help or hinder your progress in esteeming the value of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord? “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7).

4. Will this job result in inappropriate pressures on you to think or feel or act against your King, Jesus? “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23).

5. Will this job help establish an overall life-pattern that will yield a significant involvement in fulfilling God’s great purpose of exalting Christ among all the unreached peoples of the world? “Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

6. Will this job be worthy of your best energies? “Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

7. Will the activities and environment of this job tend to shape you or will you be able to shape it for the Christ-magnifying purposes of God? “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

8. Will this job provide an occasion for you to be radically Christian so as to let your light shine for your Father’s sake, or will your participation in the vision of the firm tend by definition to snuff your wick? “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

9. Does the aim of this job cohere with a growing intensity in your life to be radically, publicly, fruitfully devoted to Christ at any cost? “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

10. Will the job feel like a good investment of your life when these “two seconds” of preparation for eternity are over? “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

11. Does this job fit with why you believe you were created and purchased by Christ? “Everyone who is called by my name…I have created for my glory” (Isaiah 43:6-7). “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

12. Does this fit together with the ultimate truth that all things exist for Christ? “For by him all…have been created by [Christ] and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

For the supremacy of God in all things,
Pastor John

Wouldst thou grow in the grace of the fear of God?: John Bunyan


What things they are that have a tendency in them to hinder the growth of the fear of God in our hearts.
And that I may yet be helpful to thee, reader, I shall now give thee caution of those things that will, if way be given to them, hinder thy growth in this fear of God, the which, because they are very hurtful to the people of God, I would have thee be warned by them. And they are these which follow:

First. If thou wouldest grow in this grace of fear, take heed of A HARD HEART, for that will hinder thy growth in this grace. "Why hast thou hardened our heart from thy fear?" was a bitter complaint of the church heretofore; for it is not only the judgment that in itself is dreadful and sore to God's people, but that which greatly hindereth the growth of this grace in the soul (Isa 63:17). A hard heart is but barren ground for any grace to grow in, especially for the grace of fear: there is but little of this fear where the heart is indeed hard; neither will there ever be much therein.
Now if thou wouldest be kept from a hard heart, 1. Take heed of the beginnings of sin. Take heed, I say, of that, though it should be never so small; "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." There is more in a little sin to harden, than in a great deal of grace to soften. David's look upon Bathsheba was, one would think, but a small matter; yet that beginning of sin contracted such hardness of heart in him, that it carried him almost beyond all fear of God. It did carry him to commit lewdness with her, murder upon the body of Uriah, and to abundance of wicked dissimulation; which are things, I say, that have direct tendency to quench and destroy all fear of God in the soul.
2. If thou hast sinned, lie not down without repentance; for the want of repentance, after one has sinned, makes the heart yet harder and harder. Indeed a hard heart is impenitent, and impenitence also makes the heart harder and harder. So that if impenitence be added to hardness of heart, or to the beginning of sin which makes it so, it will quickly be with that soul, as is said of the house of Israel, it will have a whore's forehead, it will hardly be brought to shame (Jer 3:3).
3. If thou wouldest be rid of a hard heart, that great enemy to the growth of the grace of fear, be much with Christ upon the cross in thy meditations; for that is an excellent remedy against hardness of heart: a right sight of him, as he hanged there for thy sins, will dissolve thy heart into tears, and make it soft and tender. "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, - and mourn" (Zech 12:10). Now a soft, a tender, and a broken heart, is a fit place for the grace of fear to thrive in. But,

Second. If thou wouldest have the grace of fear to grow in thy soul, take heed also of A PRAYERLESS HEART, for that is not a place for this grace of fear to grow in. Hence he that restraineth prayer is said to cast off fear. "Thou castest off fear," said one of his friends to Job. But how must he do that? Why the next words show, "Thou restrainest prayer before God" (Job 15:4). Seest thou a professor that prayeth not? that man thrusteth the fear of God away from him. Seest thou a man that prays but little, that man feareth God but little; for it is the praying soul, the man that is mighty in praying, that has a heart for the fear of God to grow in. Take heed, therefore, of a prayerless heart, if you would grow in this grace of the fear of God. Prayer is as the pitcher that fetcheth water from the brook, therewith to water the herbs; break the pitcher, and it will fetch no water, and for want of water the garden withers.

Third. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of A LIGHT AND WANTON HEART, for neither is such a heart good ground for the fear of God to grow in. Wherefore it is said of Israel, "She feared not, but went and played the harlot also." She was given to wantonness, and to be light and vain, and so her fear of God decayed (Jer 3:8). Had Joseph been as wanton as his mistress, he had been as void of the fear of God as she; but he was of a sober, tender, godly, considerate spirit, therefore he grew in the fear of God.

Fourth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of A COVETOUS HEART, for neither is that which is such an one good ground for this grace of fear to grow in. Therefore this covetousness and the fear of God are as enemies, set the one in opposition to the other: one that feareth God and hateth covetousness (Exo 18:21). And the reason why covetousness is such an obstruction to the growth of this grace of fear, is because covetousness casteth those things out of the heart which alone can nourish this fear. It casteth out the Word and love of God, without which no grace can grow in the soul; how then should the fear of God grow in a covetous heart? (Eze 33:30-32; 1 John 2:15).

Fifth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of AN UNBELIEVING HEART, for an unbelieving heart is not good ground for this grace of fear to grow in. An unbelieving heart is called "an evil heart," because from it flows all the wickedness that is committed in the world (Heb 3:12). Now it is faith, or a believing heart, that nourisheth this fear of God, and not the other; and the reason is, for that faith brings God, heaven, and hell, to the soul, and maketh it duly consider of them all (Heb 11:7). This is therefore the means of fear, and that which will make it grow in the soul; but unbelief is a bane thereto.

Sixth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of A FORGETFUL HEART. Such a heart is not a heart where the grace of fear will flourish, "when I remember, I am afraid," &c. Therefore take heed of forgetfulness; do not forget but remember God, and his kindness, patience, and mercy, to those that yet neither have grace, nor special favour from him, and that will beget and nourish his fear in thy heart, but forgetfulness of this, or of any other of his judgments, is a great wound and weakening to this fear (Job 21:6). When a man well remembers that God's judgments are so great a deep and mystery, as indeed they are, that remembrance puts a man upon such considerations of God and of his judgments as to make him fear—"Therefore," said Job, "I am afraid of him." See the place, Job 23:15. "Therefore am I troubled at his presence; when I consider, I am afraid of him"—when I remember and consider of the wonderful depths of his judgments towards man.

Seventh. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of A MURMURING AND REPINING HEART, for that is not a heart for this grace of fear to grow in. As for instance, when men murmur and repine at God's hand, at his dispensations, and at the judgments that overtake them, in their persons, estates, families, or relations, that their murmuring tendeth to destroy fear; for a murmuring spirit is such an one as seems to correct God, and to find fault with his dispensations, and where there is that, the heart is far from fear. A murmuring spirit either comes from that wisdom that pretends to understand that there is a failure in the nature and execution of things, or from an envy and spite at the execution of them. Now if murmurings arise from this pretended wisdom of the flesh, then instead of fearing of God, his actions are judged to be either rigid or ridiculous, which yet are done in judgment, truth, and righteousness. So that a murmuring heart cannot be a good one for the fear of God to grow in. Alas! the heart where that grows must be a soft one; as you have it in Job 23:15, 16; and a heart that will stoop and be silent at the most abstruse of all his judgments—"I was dumb, because THOU didst it." The heart in which this fear of God doth flourish is such, that it bows and is mute, if it can but espy the hand, wisdom, justice, or holiness of God in this or the other of his dispensations, and so stirs up the soul to fear before him. But if this murmuring ariseth from envy and spite, that looketh so like to the spirit of the devil, that nothing need be said to give conviction of the horrible wickedness of it.

Eighth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of A HIGH AND CAPTIOUS SPIRIT, for that is not good ground for the fear of God to grow in. A meek and quiet spirit is the best, and there the fear of God will flourish most; therefore Peter puts meekness and fear together, as being most suited in their nature and natural tendency one to another (1 Peter 3:15). Meekness of spirit is like that heart that hath depth of earth in it in which things may take root and grow; but a high and captious spirit is like to the stony ground, where there is not depth of earth, and consequently, where this grace of fear cannot grow; therefore take heed of this kind of spirit, if thou wouldest that the fear of God should grow in thy soul.

Ninth. Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of AN ENVIOUS HEART, for that is not a good heart for the fear of God to grow in. "Let not thine heart envy sinners; but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long" (Prov 23:17). To envy any is a sign of a bad spirit, and that man takes upon him, as I have already hinted, to be a controller and a judge, yea, and a malicious executioner too, and that of that fury that ariseth from his own lusts and revengeful spirit, upon (perhaps) the man that is more righteous than himself. But suppose he is a sinner that is the object of thine envy, why, the text sets that envy in direct opposition to the fear of God; "Envy not sinners, but be thou in the fear of God." These two, therefore, to wit, envy to sinners and fearing of God, are opposites. Thou canst not fear God, and envy sinners too. And the reason is, because he that envieth a sinner, hath forgotten himself, that he is as bad; and how can he then fear God? He that envies sinners rejects his duty of blessing of them that curse, and praying for them that despitefully use us; and how can he that hath rejected this, fear God? He that envieth sinners, therefore, cannot be of a good spirit, nor can the fear of God grow in his heart.

Tenth. Lastly, Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then take heed of HARDENING THY HEART at any time against convictions to particular duties, as to prayer, alms, self-denial, or the like. Take heed also of hardening thy heart, when thou art under any judgment of God, as sickness, losses, crosses, or the like. I bid you before to beware of a hard heart, but now I bid you beware of hardening your soft ones. For to harden the heart is to make it worse than it is; harder, more desperate, and bold against God, than at the present it is. Now, I say, if thou wouldest grow in this grace of fear, take heed of hardening thy heart, and especially of hardening of it against convictions to good; for those convictions are sent of God like seasonable showers of rain, to keep the tillage of thy heart in good order, that the grace of fear may grow therein; but this stifling of convictions makes the heart as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. Therefore happy is he that receiveth conviction, for so he doth keep in the fear of God, and that fear thereby nourished in his soul; but cursed is he that doth otherwise—"Happy is the man that feareth alway; but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief" (Prov 28:14).

Philippians 2:6-11

Our hearts must take into account the mindset/attitude of Christ in order that we might correctly live out his humility. There are three principles to consider from Phil. 2:6-11.

First, verses 6-7. "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."

1. Christ-likeness embraces God-given roles. (vs. 6-7)

(Who though he was in the form of God,) In the greater biblical narrative we are informed that God is Triune and that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who participate in definite roles and relationships. Specifically, the Father stands in a position of authority and the Son stands in submission. It is this relational structure in which infinite love and joy has flourished from eternity past. And although Christ maintained infinite glory with his father he…

(…did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped) Hence, before the foundations of the world the Father, the Missio Dei, summons the Son and lovingly sends him (according to Ps. 2 and Eph 1) to purchase up a people from their sin. But this required Christ to give up his glory with the Father …
(…and made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men) Christ seeks a lowly mission to the point of robing himself in human flesh; being born to a young and inexperienced couple. He made himself completely vulnerable. He entered time and space and embraced all the limitations of man without giving up an ounce of his divinity.

Does this not astound you? That Christ, in his glory, would come… demonstrating complete submission to the Father in embracing his role. And consider this, God has created us in his image with relationship structures that stand to glorify the authority/submission structure in God. Consider marriage: God has given you a role. Consider the church: God has given you a role. Consider employment: God has given you a role.

Are you thwarting your God-given role due to a selfish sense of elitism or partiality? Do you sulk because you think you deserve a better job? Or Do you use your authority to demean your wife; perhaps it’s just by the nuance of your tone? Or have you embraced your God-given role recognizing that…As Bruce Ware mentions, that whether our role is one of authority or submission, it is just as God-like to correctly embrace a role of biblical authority as God-like it is to embrace a role of biblical submission…

Second, What does Christ-likeness look like? First it embraces its God-given role and second...

2. Christ-likeness embraces difficult tasks with simple obedience/faith. (vs. 8-11)"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Does this not beg the question, “Who was Christ obedient to?” Well obviously with a Trinitarian perspective we understand that to be the Father. Never do we see Christ losing focus of his purpose. Christ spent numerous nights in prayer seeking the will of his Father. In John 4, when Christ is speaking to the woman at the well his disciples had gone into the city to get food, and when they returned exhorting Christ to eat but he says “My meat/satisfaction/nourishment is to do the will of the Father.”. Simple obedience!

Furthermore in John 8 Christ mentions that he always does the will of the Father but then in the next couple verses speaks of liberty/freedom which is to say that Christ experienced perfect liberty in being enslaved to the purposes of his Father, …the purposes that would soon lead to suffering, to death and to a relational abandonment… as Christ cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. Why can Christ be so sure of liberty being found in obedience to his Father? Because as verse 9 says, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord," Christ knew his Father’s love and trusted that his Father was seeking his good.

It is often times hard to obey and trust God when he gives you difficult tasks and circumstances. It is within those circumstances that we feel the urge to give up or take the reins of our life in our own hands doubting that God has good intentions.

But God really does have good thoughts toward you. It is why Paul encourages the Philippians to embrace their union with Christ by suffering for his sake (1:29). That is why he encourages them with the promise, “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (1:6) And is it why he establishes his testimony in chapter 3 by saying that he counts all things as dung for the sake of Christ and to share in Christ sufferings, becoming like Christ in his death, that by any means possible he might attain the resurrection. Paul’s concern is for sanctification to be taking place while holding firm to the hope of a future day of glorification.

Growing in sanctification, on the outset, in not a safe place to be. But knowing that God, through our union with Christ, loves and cares for me, and is seeking my good – there is no other place I would want to be.

So what does Christ-likeness look like? I.) it embraces its God-given roles 2.) it embraces difficult tasks with simple obedience and third…

3. Christ-likeness embraces greatness by deflecting the glory to God. (vs.11b) to the glory of God the Father.

The relationship of the Father and Son demonstrate the most wonderful acts of love. God the Father graciously gives the Son center stage in redemptive history and exalts the Son in his mission so that reverence, adoration, worship, respect, and honor is given to the Son but the Son turns around and loving points it all glory back to the Father. Just as 1 Cor. 15:28 says “When all things are subjected to him (the Son), then the Son will also subject himself to him(the father) who put all thing in subjection under him(the Son), that God (the Father)may be all in all.”

Greatness is not ours! As John Calvin mentioned, “our hearts are idol factories”. It is often times when God exalts us in our simple obedience that we become a repository of that exaltation for the sake self-worship rather than deferring that success or praise as a worshipful gift to God - the one who alone is worthy of it.

Fight Club:Lesson 6 - Sober, Gentle, Peacemaking

The next three character qualities that Paul mentions have been strung together most likely because they tend to complement one another. Sobriety refers to an individual who is not controlled by an addiction to substances. Specifically, Paul is writing about the use of alcohol. Ryken mentions, “An alcoholic cannot serve as an overseer because he is incapable of the kind of sober judgment that good spiritual leadership requires.”[1] The overseer must be a man of discernment; therefore he must be free from addictions in all areas of life.

Discuss: Define addiction. What areas of my life tend toward addiction? What are possible addictions besides pornography and substance abuse?

The Greek philosophers at times referred to a drunkard as a brawler.[2] Drunkenness carried with it the idea of violence or rage. The overseer must not be impatient or easily agitated by the people he is responsible to care for. In 2 Timothy 2:24, Paul exhorts Timothy to be gentle in correcting the false beliefs of those at the church of Ephesus. Therefore, gentleness does not condone passivity. Rather it is a life being lived out with Christ-like meekness (power/authority under control).

Discuss: What areas of my life do I tend to be passive in? What areas of my life do I lack patience and gentleness?

Finally, an overseer must not be quarrelsome, divisive, or argumentative. Consequently, it is necessary for the overseer to be selective on what battles are worthy to engage (1 Tim. 4:6-10; 2 Tim. 3:14-26). As the overseer engages in battles he must exemplify sobriety and gentleness, yet unwavering commitment to the Word of God.

Discuss: What theological issues am I most concerned about? What is my attitude when the terms fundamentalism, evangelicalism or reformed theology are mentioned?

Answer the following questions:

1. How do you measure appropriate sobriety?

2. Do you partake of alcohol and if so is it with appropriate sobriety?

3. What are some cardinal issues of the faith and what are some contemporary “foolish and stupid arguments”?

4. In regards to church-life and theological issues, at what times do you tend to be impatient or lack gentleness?

5. In regards to family life, at what times do you tend to be impatient or lack gentleness?

6. In what ways do/can you seek to be a peacemaker?

Read: Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, 25-49
[1] Ryken, Phillip. 1 Timothy. (Phillipsburg, NJ: PandR Publishing, 2007) 112.

[2] Paraphrased from Ryken, Phillip. 1 Timothy. (Phillipsburg, NJ: PandR Publishing, 2007) 112.
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