You Can’t Assume the Gospel

There is a great need for churches and Christians to get back to the gospel. It seems, now more than ever, that the church has swayed towards pragmatism at the expense of the gospel. Before I go any further in this blog, I just want to lay out the gospel. I know it may seem silly for me to explain the gospel on a blog, but the sad truth is that many who use the phrase “gospel” really don’t understand what the gospel is. I am indebted to Dr. David Nicholas for the content of this post. Dr. Nicholas has been a pastor forever, has tons of wisdom and an unquenchable passion for the gospel. Dr. Nicholas lays out a “clear, complete, logical, sequential presentation of the Bad News and the Good News”. For the rest of this post, I will give an overview of the “Bad News, Good News” presentation. This presentation is built of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

Bad News

The sin problem: According to Romans 3:10-12 and 23, we read that we have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory. So God has a problem with us because we sin against God constantly with our words, thoughts and actions. If we used the Ten Commandments as a basic litmus test, we are all 0 for 10.  So using the very elementary morality test of the Ten Commandments, we fail miserably. Each and everyone of these sins is a crime against God. And God, because He is holy, must punish that sin.

The death problem: Most people view God as a fair judge because they feel that He will let them off the hook because their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds. But God is perfectly righteous and just. God, being perfectly righteous, cannot accept sinful, unrighteous people. God, being just, must punish our sins against Him. The only punishment fit for our sins and crimes against God is death (Romans 6:23a). Because of our sins and crimes against God we will die a physical death (Genesis 2:15-17). Not only will we die a physical death, but we will also die a spiritual death, where we are separated from God and everything that is good.

Good works don’t work: Most people think that if they live a good life that God will accept them, despite their crimes against God. The reality of the matter is that nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God (Galatians 2:16). Every person on earth has the universal problems of sin and death and there is nothing we can do about it.

Good News

God provided a substitute: God, because of His great love, provided a Substitute to take the punishment that was due to me.  Since sin came into the world through a man (Adam), the only way to overcome sin and death was through a man (1 Corinthians 15:21). So God the Father sent God the Son on earth to become a man to be our substitute. God sent Jesus into the world through a virgin (we call this day Christmas) so that Jesus was not born with a sin nature. If Christ was born with a sin a nature then he could not save us from sin and death because He would have been a sinner.  So Jesus was born without sin and lived a sinless life.

Jesus went to the Cross: After living a perfect life, Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, tried, convicted and crucified. As Jesus hung on the cross, God the Father took all of my sins and put them on Jesus and punished Him in my place. This was the greatest demonstration of God’s love for me that He would die for my sins in my place (Romans 5:8). The physical pain on the cross was excruciating. But the physical pain was nothing compared to what Jesus experienced when He (sinless and perfect) had all of my sins put onto Him and drank the full cup of God’s wrath for me (Isaiah 53: 6, 10. 2 Corinthians 5:21. 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18)

Jesus rose from the dead: After Jesus died, His body was taken from the cross and placed in tomb. His enemies rejoiced while his disciples mourned and tried to figure out what was next. But Christ rose from the dead on the third day (we call this Easter).  Death could not keep its hold on Jesus Christ because He died taking the punishment for all my sins (Acts 2:24). Death loses its power where there is no sin.

Trust your eternal destiny to Jesus: After remaining on the earth for 40 days and right before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave us the great commission to go into all the world and tell of what He accomplished for us on the cross (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). God established a “by grace through faith” system of offering the gift of eternal life to people. It is by grace because God did it all. God calls people to believe the bad news about them and the good news of what Jesus did for them through his death and resurrection. We are to trust Jesus to save us from sin and condemnation and save us to a new life lived with and for God.

This is the gospel. May we never assume the gospel and share it with all people. Thank you again to David Nicholas and his gospel boot camp for the information that I presented in this post. I highly recommend that you go to www.gospelbootcamp.org and spend a couple days with David. It will radically impact your evangelism and ministry.

The Impact of Dr. Homer G. Lindsay, Jr. On My Life

For 23 years of my life, I went to church at First Baptist Church of downtown Jacksonville. There are times when I would attend better than others, but I was there pretty consistently throughout my life. Until I was a sophomore in high school, we had co-pastors at FBC. Dr. Jerry Vines and Dr. Homer Lindsay. While I am thankful for Dr. Vines, Dr. Lindsay has had as huge an impact on my life as few people have. He was a simple man, but thought very radically. There were three things he did very well. And I pray these three things will shape my ministry as I continue in my journey of following Christ.

The first thing Dr. Lindsay did very well was he loved God. Anybody who knew Dr. Lindsay knew that he loved God with everything he had. I remember him telling a story that has stuck with me. During a particularly trying time (he was sick physically), Dr. Lindsay was walking around his dining room table talking to God. As he was walking around his table praying, he stopped suddenly and started looking around. I sat there wondering what would pull Dr. Lindsay out of prayer. He told us that he stopped because he just knew God was there with him, walking around the dining room table. I pray that I can have such an intimate, passionate love for my Father that there are times when I have to stop because I feel His presence so much.

Not only did Dr. Lindsay love God, he loved God’s word. Dr. Lindsay knew that the Bible was God’s inspired Word. Each and every time he stood up to speak, whether to preach or give announcements, he had is big, leather bound KJV with him. Dr. Lindsay would spend hours each day in the Bible. He would preach messages that were straight from the Bible. He would preach through books of the Bible, even if it took him months to finish. Dr. Lindsay loved the Bible. I pray that I will have a passion for God’s word. Not just to read it, but to love it, know it and practice it.

Lastly, Dr. Lindsay loved people. Dr. Lindsay had a passion for people. He cared about people. You could not have a conversation with Dr. Lindsay without him asking you how you and your family were doing. If he wasn’t sure if you knew Jesus or not, you better believe he was going to share the gospel with you. One of the most amazing things he did, in my eyes, was meeting with children on Wednesday nights. He would open his office and share the gospel with these kids in a way that was understandable but not watered down. Dr. Lindsay had a passion for people. I pray that my soul burns with passion for the lost and passion for people the same way Dr. Lindsay’s heart made him care so deeply for people.

In closing, Dr. Lindsay was a sweet, sweet man. I have grown to appreciate him more in the years since he has been gone than I ever anticipated. Dr. Lindsay had his quirks, but you could not diminish his passion for God, the Bible and people. In a day where we try to complicate everything in the church, Dr. Lindsay reminds me to keep it simple. He did not get caught up in debates or things that pulled him away from loving God, the Bible or people. I pray that I will follow Dr. Lindsay’s lead and love God more, love the Bible more and love people more.

My Greatest Goal

Few pastors encourage me the way Francis Chan does. There are a lot of pastors who are very gifted teachers. There are pastors out there who are smart and can lay out exactly what you should do. But there are very few pastors who live out what they preach more than Francis Chan. Francis is always warning the Christian to be aware of where there soul is. A temptation creeps in each believer, especially in America, to become comfortable. Comfort is a very dangerous thing in the Christian life. As we become comfortable, we rely on the Spirit less and less. That is a very dangerous thing.

I remember watching a video clip of Francis holding on a balance beam. He used the analogy because that is how many of us, including myself, live our lives. We try to be so safe and so comfortable that we rely very little on the Holy Spirit. If the believer is holding on to the balance beam and is relying very little, if at all, on the Spirit of God then they are going to make a small impact on the kingdom.

Unfortunately, I am holding on the balance beam. My goals in life were very self motivated. I wanted to have a decent sized church. I wanted to have a good pay package, rich with retirement and benefits. I wanted people to know who I was. I don’t want that anymore. If nobody knows me and I am called to spend my life in a village in Africa serving God I am ok with that. If I labor hard for Christ and nobody ever knows my name I am ok with that. I just want to serve God, move where He moves me and hear “well done” when my time is up.

Thank you Francis Chan for modeling this and being an example. Pastor, what is driving your ministry? If it is for anything other than fulfilling what God has for you, I pray you get back on track. Our ministries will only be fruitful to the extent that we let go of our desires and dreams and surrender to God’s desires.

The Weighty Responsibility of Preaching

When I was in college I sensed God was calling me into ministry. I was not sure what He was calling me to but I did know He was calling me to preach. At the time I did not understand what this calling meant or the awesome responsibility preaching was. In the past few years, God has really impressed on me how weighty the call of preaching is. The conviction of preaching is something I am learning to take very seriously.

Unfortunately, I did not always understand what the call of preaching meant. I used to be actively involved in preaching at a prison in Starke, Fl. As a part of this ministry, I was able to preach about once a month to 30-50 inmates. I enjoyed preaching, but I did not take the responsibility seriously. Often times I would choose a text, study the text and write a sermon in two days. I really feel like I did a disservice to the text at best, and sinned at worst by putting so little effort into preparing a sermon. My sermons were full of fluff and void of theology. I had more unnecessary filler jokes than I did challenging statements. As a result, my preaching was shallow, inconsistent and very disorganized. Luckily God can use preaching like this to have an impact, but the call to preaching is a call that requires surrender, sacrifice and time.

The call to preach and the lack of effort I put into preaching has weighed very heavy on my heart in the last few months. This conviction to preach and to preach effectively led me to have a conversation with a close friend of mine on the necessary aspects of a sermon. My friend, BJ Hurse, gave me six things that he uses in each and every sermon he preaches. I have adapted these six ideas into my sermon preparation and sermon delivery and would like to share these with you.

Each sermon I preach, Lord willing, will have these aspects in them.
1. Must call people to repentance.
2. Must be centered in Jesus and the Glory of God.
3. Don’t shy away from using challenging terms and illustrations.
4. Call people to salvation
5. Impeded with doctrine
6. No filler time.

I hope that through writing these out my soul will be convicted further and that I will begin preparing and preaching in a way that honors Christ. These points are just scratching the surface on what it means to preach. There are hermeneutical considerations, study considerations and delivery considerations that are very important, but these are just some very important aspects of preaching I am reflecting on.

10 Books I Will Read in 2010

Here are my top 10 books for 2010. These books are not the only books I am going to read, nor are they my prediction for the 10 best books. These are just the books I am most excited about reading.

1. Christ Centered Preaching by Bryan Chappell
2. Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
3. Desiring God by John Piper
4. Pierced For Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach
5. Missionary Methods: St. Pauls or Ours? By Roland Allen
6. The Praying Life by Paul Miller
7. The Cross and Christian Ministry by DA Carson
8. Total Church by Chester and Timmis
9. The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
10. Instruments in the Redeemers Hands by Paul David Tripp

Here We Go!

I am going to attempt to become a blogger. I can honestly say that I never thought this day would come, but it is here.  While another topic may occasionally find it’s way on this blog, I plan to primarily write about the Christian life.  I have become increasingly convicted of the fact that I need to surrender ALL of me to God, and this blog will be a journal of the journey. I will write about theological concepts I am wrestling with, about things I am learning in the Bible and about books and other resources I am reading at the time. I know that I don’t have much to say, but I pray that this blog will be a blessing to someone. I am realizing how important it is to have an outlet, a place where I can discuss things I am learning while sharpening my writing skills. I do not know what this journey will bring, but here we go!