Caricature

Johnson tried hard to hold back the tears as he hugged his family for the last time before they began the long trip back home without him. His mother wasn’t so wrapped up in appearing tough and independent, so her tears freely carved channels down her face and onto her blouse. The younger siblings each received a rather self-conscious hug and the dad a firm handshake. Johnson turned, grabbed his last suitcase full of college necessities, and thus began his college career.

Johnson knew his Bible. And he knew the reality of what life was going to be like at a state school. Thankfully he’d been able to get himself transferred away from the original dorm he’d been placed in. The whole progressivist co-ed dorm thing declared itself to be “more exciting” than normal dorm life. Johnson would take dorm life as known to humanity since two guys named Cain and Able invented sharing the bedroom 8,000 years ago, thank you very much.

As he arranged his small collection of family pictures and mementoes of high school success, he thought about the life he was entering, and the life he was now stepping beyond. Gone were the fast friends he had made through youth group, as they were cast about by the wind to different colleges throughout the country. You go where the scholarship money leads. Gone was the church that had taught him how a felt board operated, that had heard his testimony before he was buried into the waters of baptism. Gone was the pastor’s office whose walls would speak of special times of counsel and direction, of words of prayer for protection while beginning this new life. And gone was the Christian high school that promised to prepare its students for life beyond its walls. The preparation was done. It’s show time. New church to choose, new friends to make, and new perspectives to dismantle.

Warily Johnson eyed his biology professor from the fourth row. This was the moment that he had been prepared for. As an infant he had grappled with Gerber creamed carrots in his stomach, and complex arguments for the dating of the Noahic flood in his mind. His school books had all dedicated themselves to debunking Darwinists as foolish and misled, parasites who longed to feed their parasitic egos on the souls of the young and the naive. Darwinists were fools, hardly more competent to draw rational conclusions from scientific data than the monkeys they claimed to have descended from.

And then the professor opened his mouth and addressed the class. He welcomed them, warmly, to their first day of class. Nervous laughter greeted his jokes about first-day experiences. He opened the door of his office to anyone who wanted to talk with him. And then he began to teach. And it didn’t sound as crazy as when Johnson’s pastor had described it in his Sunday morning series on Genesis.

Enter the war in Johnson’s heart. Those who love Jesus have told him that everyone who believes in Darwinism is a fool, a chest-beating buffoon who knows nothing of fairness nor decency. Those Darwinists he has encountered have proven to be none of those things. In fact, it’s the pastor who’s beginning to look like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, for his representation of the insanity of Darwinism and the coherent thought that is marched out every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:20 to 1:50 resemble each other as much as his mother and a howler monkey.

Six months later, Johnson’s mother is overcome with tears before her son again. Only this time there is no joy mingled in the cup of sadness. Just fear. Her son has come home from college, riddled with doubts about everything he had been raised to believe. Not just about the age of the earth, but of the reality of the cross and the existence of God. After all, how could there be a God who orders events so that little Japanese children are swept away by tsunamis and their parents are radiated by exploding nuclear power facilities, doomed to the slow surrender of their bodies to cancer.

“How did this happen?” she cries to her husband. “How does everything we taught him for 18 years get swept away by the current of everything he was taught to beware of?”

If we content ourselves with teaching caricature, we’ll accomplish nothing more than to create an army of people who desert what we’ve taught them for what we fear most they’ll believe.

Unicorns and the Gospel of Christ

I’m preaching this at the North County Christian School chapel tomorrow, from 1 Corinthians 1:18. Pray that God will cause the students to see that commitment to Christ cannot be halfhearted, and that the cost of following Christ is high but entirely worth it.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. What’s the word of the cross? The gospel. Who are the perishing? Those who are unbelievers. What do they think of the gospel? They think it’s foolishness.

Nobody respects what they think is foolish. There is no honor or reputation in identifying yourself with something that others think is foolish. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone get all fired up about unicorns?

If I were to come up to you, look you straight in the eye, and then with absolute sincerity, all honesty, and a forthright passion say, “Let me tell you about something. And this is really exciting. This is what my life is all about. There are two different types of unicorns. There are red unicorns and blue unicorns. And we can tell a lot about these different types of unicorns by their color. You see, we know that the blue unicorns live in cool climates because a certain plant that only grows in cold climates turns their skin blue. And the red ones, we know they live in the tropics because their red skin tone protects them from constant exposure to the sun’s rays.”

I mean, what would you think? I don’t care how many times you’ve seen the Charlie the Unicorn Trilogy. You’d think I was nuts.

And according to Paul who says, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” the gospel doesn’t sound any different to those who have not repented of their sins and come to saving faith in Christ. The gospel–the fact that human beings are sinful by nature, that God Himself was crucified on a cross, that our sins were transferred onto Him and His righteousness was transferred to us by that death, that He conquered death through His resurrection–is unicorn talk to those who don’t believe.

If you’re looking for respect, if you’re looking to be cool, if you’re looking to be considered intelligent by men, then the gospel isn’t for you. Because the truth of the gospel is completely foolish to those who are perishing. And they’re going to think you’re nuts for believing it.

Disc Golf as Ministry

One of the joys of my current position in ministry is that I get to go disc golfing (“frisbee golfing” to the terribly unsophisticated) with members of the youth group two or three times a week. I was first introduced to the sport about eight years ago through some members of my church. I would play every couple weeks in high school, the time pressures of college and dorm ministry relegated my faithful JK Champion Valkyrie driver to the furthest reaches of my closet.

During the last few months, frisbee golf has become the main point of contact between me and the members of the youth group outside of our church setting.

Disc golf is played much like “normal” golf, except by throwing frisbees instead of hitting golf balls. Specialty discs are made for frisbee golf, with thicker rims and heavier plastics to increase distance and resistance to wind. There’s a tee box that you throw off of, and a basket that you must throw your disc into (picture below). Professional players can consistently throw discs in excess of 500 feet. We’re not exactly professionals on the Cornerstone Youth Group Disc Golf Circuit. It has been a challenge to transition out of a discipleship-heavy, relationship-driven ministry as an RA at TMC to a position that is driven by teaching and finds me spending long hours behind a desk in a solitary office. And yet, I cannot believe that teaching and relationships cannot be blended together in a church environment. Which, is probably a better situation because the people doing the teaching are also doing the discipleship. My pastor’s sermons mean more because I see the life he lives in the words he speaks. It certainly is harder to get to know people when you don’t live next door to them, but difficulty isn’t supposed to stop the growth of the kingdom of God.

The more of a friend I become to the youth, the more they will hear what I have to teach on Wednesday nights. We rarely talk about anything spiritually-oriented during our disc golf games. There’s far more taunting over bad shots and laughter over the bizarre characters we meet and talk of music and Boy Scouts and pranks I pulled at Masters than anything. And that’s a beautiful thing. Because as we laugh at how the Grim Weeper tree on hole 10 ate my drive, I know that there’s more going on than just a frustrating disc golf shot. It isn’t a waste of my time to disc golf instead of write or read. Because the gospel exists inside of life, and is meant to be experienced in everything under the sun.

1 Thessalonians 2:8 says, “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.” That really is the impetus for interpersonal ministry. It’s about the gospel and life, because the gospel is not a stagnant, intellectual belief but a controlling manner of life. Life and words serve to feed off of one another to increase the power of both. The more I see how those who teach me live, the more I pay attention to what they have to say. And the more I hear what they have to say, the more I’m confronted with who I ought to be.

If You Will Fear One Thing, You Will Fear Nothing

“No Fear” was as cool as it got for much of my early teenage years. No Fear decals and bumper stickers emblazoned the rear windows of large, manly trucks. Scores of people would wear “No Fear” t-shirts. I thought cool people wore No Fear gear. In retrospect, “No Fear” has got to be one of the dumbest pop slogans in recent memory. People without fear get eaten by tigers after hopping over fences in zoos.

Fear is something that can be good or bad. It is good to fear things that can harm you. There is something wrong with a pedestrian who does not have the healthy fear of getting run over that motivates him to look both ways before crossing the street. It is bad to fear things that we ought not fear–things like the dark, small insects that cannot harm you, or mayonnaise. (I asked the youth group what are bad things to fear and that was their first response: mayonnaise. I’m tempted to say it is something that should be feared, but that’s another topic.)

Because fear can be either good or bad, it’s really important to define what we mean by “The fear of the Lord.” The Fear of the Lord is reverence and awe of God fueled by the reality that God is both a righteously angry judge and a tenderly loving Savior. The fear of the Lord is not only negative (fear of wrath), but also wonder at His incredible mercy and grace.

Proverbs is a book based around cause and effect. “If you do (x), you will get (y). Consequently, we need to look elsewhere in Scripture in order to see our motivations for fearing the Lord. First, we’ll look at 3 motivations to fear God, and then we’ll look at 5 results of fearing God.

3 Motivations for Fearing God

1. Fear God because He can destroy both body and soul in Hell (Matt 10:28)

Have you ever wondered why God tells us about heaven and hell? There are many reasons, but a large one is so that we can live with the judgment seat in mind. There exists, right now as you read this, a king on a throne. And every second people like you and me die and appear before Him. And he’s exceedingly angry at most of them. We cannot see this scene, so it’s very easy to forget. But it is absolutely real, and soon it will be you and me before that throne. In Matthew 10:28 God says, ‘Man can do you a lot of harm. They can hurt you and kill you in very painful ways. But I can do worse than that. So fear me.’

2. Fear God Because He is an All-Seeing Judge. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

Every once in a while, a story will flash across CNN about another convicted murderer being proved innocent by new evidence. Why do juries sentence innocent men to death? They do so because they lack perfect information. God is a judge and jury that infallibly remembers every single thing you have ever done. He can recite for you every word you have spoken, every thought you have conceived, every action you have ever done. He can tell you what you had for breakfast on January 19,2002, which grocery store you purchased it from, who the truck driver was that delivered it to the store, the name of the farmer who raised the crops to receive the money to buy his breakfast the same morning. And God can tell you where that farmer bought His breakfast, and which truck driver delivered that food…

God’s omniscience should be a cause of great fear and great hope. God certainly remembers the evil that you do. But He also remembers the good you do in His name. And that comes attached with a promised reward. So fear God that you might not sin, but fear God that you might also be rewarded.

3. Fear God because Christ shed His blood for you.(1 Peter 1:7-19)

The Cross is personal. The blood of Christ is not a mist which sprinkles all of humanity, but rather a fountain directed specifically by the Father to drench only those whom He has specifically called into a relationship with Him. Be amazed that God Himself died for you. And that kind of love and dive to save you should make you a little bit nervous about the Lord. That kind of love is crazy; it’s not something you can control or manipulate. Rather that kind of love is to be obeyed in fear and trembling.

5 Results of Fearing God

1. Fearing God makes you happy! (Proverbs 28:14)

“Blessed” and “happy” are synonyms in Hebrew. To be blessed means to be happy, and to be happy means to be blessed. Now go back and read that sentence and think about Stephen who was stoned to death by a zealous mob of Pharisees. Or maybe the believers in Hebrews 11 who were torn apart by wild beasts.

Happiness and circumstances are not connected in the Scriptures. Paul learned to be content in all circumstances–which means that the circumstances were immaterial to his happiness and contentment. Jeremiah Burroughs wrote in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment,

A gracious heart…is contented not by having his on desires satisfied, but by melting his will and desires into God’s will. So that, in one sense, he cones to have his desires satisfied though he does not obtain the thing that he desired before; still he cones to be satisfied with this, because he makes his will to be at one with God’s will.

2. Fearing God means you’ll understand. (Proverbs 9:10)

This is a repeat from last week. The Bible simply is not generous in its estimation of your ability to figure life out. Since you a broken blend of righteousness and sinfulness, you need something else to measure everything else by. Without the ear f the Lord, you can never be truly wise or understanding because you’ve missed the point of your existence: glorifying God. Wisdom ultimately is a relationship not facts to memorize off a page.

3. Fearing God means you’ll live righteously. (Proverbs 8:13, 14:2)

If you are a Christian, you will turn away from evil. A Christian who lives in an unrepentant pattern of sin is not a Christian. Your hands prove what occupies your heart and mind.

4. Fearing God gives you a refuge. (Proverbs 14:26)

Fearing God and trusting God are inseparable. We do not fear and trust a vengeful God, but rather a God who loves His people. He is a trustworthy God, for He loves us as a father loves his children. Romans 8:28 has sadly been hijacked into becoming some kind of cliche. But this verse isn’t meant to be paired with a low-budget picture of a field of tulips on the front of some greeting card. It’s a tough-as-nails verse to hang onto when nothing else is going to cut it. At the end of the day when nothing else makes sense, we must trust and rest in God’s promises of His sovereignty and His goodness.

5. Fearing God means you won’t fear anything else. (Psalm 56:11, 118:6)

With a sovereign God who has promised that everything is in His control and for your good, what is there to fear? John Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides. The first two missionaries to land on this island chain were clubbed to death and eaten on the beach within 15 minutes of landing. Paton sailed about twenty years after these two men to evangelize a still-unreached cannibalistic tribe in the chain. He was threatened with death almost every day, spent a night in the top of a tree while every islander combed the earth for him with their machetes, and had dozens of partners killed while he survived. Paton lived his motto: “I am invincible until Christ calls me home.”

If you fear God, not even death can touch you without His permission. And then it is not a messenger of darkness but rather a call from a Father to come home. It’s hard to be afraid when the worst man can do turns out to be the best possible thing for you.

This is the second post in a series on the book of Proverbs based on a message series entitled “Gracious Wreaths of Godly Wisdom.” Here are the links to previous posts:

How to Be a Fool (Part 1) – Proverbs 2:3-19                                                                      

How to Be a Fool (Part 2) – Proverbs 2:3-19 (cont.)

How to Be and Stay a Fool (Part 2)

6. Read the Bible, but don’t study it. (5) What would you think of a gold miner who, upon finding a couple flecks of gold in a stream, declared his journey to be profitable and himself to be content? You’d think him crazy! Where there are a few flecks of gold to be had easily there’s bound to be storehouses of gold underground. Only a sluggard or a fool would be content with a few nuggets when he might have pounds of gold should he dig.

The Bible is an absolute gold mine. And like any other gold mine it’s treasures are not to be had by the lazy. It is certainly true that there is wisdom to be had by reading the Bible. But there are stores of wisdom buried, only to be uncovered by those who work for it. The author of Hebrews chastises his audience for being content with milk and not meat in Hebrews 5:11-14 saying, “You should be teachers! But you don’t know the Word because you haven’t studied!” Oh, let that not be us.

It’s easy to look at men like Piper, MacArthur, and our local pastors and think they are something special. But all the men we respect for their biblical knowledge are just that–men. What they have done is diligently applied themselves to the Word. There is nothing stopping you from becoming like your spiritual heroes if you would work for it.

7. Supplement your knowledge of the Bible with other philosophies and ideas. Scripture’s great and all, but it just doesn’t cover everything you’ll ever face. (6) Across the entire Bible, the Lord alone is pictured as the source of wisdom. Everything apart from His Word is foolishness. If true wisdom is found outside the pages of Scripture, it is because that person or book or anything else has been colored by the wisdom found in the Word. Wise people are those saturated by the Word.

8. Let knowledge flock to your head, but not migrate to your heart. (9-10) Solomon uses the word “for” in v10. This means “because.” Why can you discern truth? Because wisdom has sunk into your heart! It is a terrifying reality that it is possible to spend your life in the church hearing sermons, spending time with godly people, and even teaching the truth and yet still be unconverted. According to Jesus this is not an infrequent occurrence. “Many,” he says in Matthew 7: 13-23, “will say to me in that day ‘Lord, Lord’ did we not perform miracles and cast out demons in your name? And I will reply ‘I never knew you. Depart from me you doers of lawlessness.”

This isn’t a fake picture. How many people in our churches and our Christian colleges and youth groups will die entirely convinced they will hear “well done, good and faithful servant” only to be shocked by the words “Depart. I never knew you.” Hell is full of people who professed Christ to be their Lord. Do not trust the heights of the sacrifices you make for the Lord or the depths to which you have sunk in sin, but rather look at the overall course of your life–do you obey?

9. Don’t be too choosy about who you make friends with. After all, everyone’s good deep down. (12-15) This simply is not true. Everyone is crooked deep down unless an intentional change has taken place in their hearts. Solomon specifically warns us to flee from four kinds of people: those who have left the faith, those who find entertainment in sin, those who hinder the truth, and those who live differently than they talk.

10. Romance the unregenerate. (16-19) Almost every single one of you will face this at some point in your life, whether it be at school now, in college, or in the workplace. I ran into it for the first time at age seventeen while working at Taco Bell. Understanding the bent of an unregenerate person’s heart and their eternal destiny (should God not perform a work) is key to deflecting temptation. No one would marry a corpse. Why would you get involved with a spiritual corpse? The person you’re dating will have a substantial impact on you, and the person you marry even more so. Though they cannot make a genuine believer lose their salvation, they certainly can dull your drive to follow your Savior. Don’t think you’re immune.

Charles Bridges wrote, “Never has apostasy from the faith been connected with a prayerful and diligent study of the Word of God.” The Word of God is the perfect transmission of the Mind of God. Everything God wants us to know about Him and how we ought to live is between the cover of this book. If you want to know God, you will study like a desperate man who understands his unspeakable need, yet has been saved by incomprehensible grace.

This is the second post in a series on the book of Proverbs based on a message series entitled “Gracious Wreaths of Godly Wisdom.” Here are the links to previous posts:

How to Be a Fool (Part 1) – Proverbs 2:3-19

How to Be and Stay a Fool (Part 1)

This Wednesday, the Cornerstone Youth Group began a new series entitled Graceful Wreaths of Godly Wisdom: 11 Words of Wisdom from the Book of Proverbs. I wanted us to study Proverbs for a few reasons:

First, we live in a foolish culture. Solomon’s wisdom runs counter to just about everything American culture promotes. We love youthfulness, Proverbs sees grey hair as a crown of glory. We love self-promotion; Proverbs commands us to wait for others to praise us. To live biblically and live American are increasingly at odds with one another.

Second, Proverbs is poignantly practical. The rhythm of the verses stick in the head (and hopefully heart) easily. And almost every verse is immediately applicable. It seems to be a good book to start at the beginning of a school year, as pressures of all kinds mount for our students.

I hope to post each week’s message here within a couple days of teaching it on Wednesday night. Some of the messages (like this one) will be split into two parts for the sake of length. For those of you from Cornerstone, I hope you’ll continue to talk about what we’re learning at Youth Group with your children. My prayer is that we all would be doers of the Word as well as just hearers. For those not from Cornerstone, I trust this study on Proverbs will be helpful as well. The truths certainly extend beyond the immediate context of a Youth Group.

How to Be and Stay a Fool, Proverbs 2:3-19

1. Assume you are wise. (v3-5) The Bible is just not generous in its assessment of our ability to figure life out. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Prov 16:27). Being foolish is a side effect of being born. The Fall has so radically poisoned our hearts against wisdom, that when Christ (who is wisdom incarnate) showed up, we crucified Him. (see 1 Cor. 1:18-21)

2. Do not pray and ask for wisdom. (v3) Since we don’t naturally posses wisdom and are told to pursue it by Solomon, Paul, Jesus, etc. than it follows that wisdom can only be found outside ourselves. (see James 1:5) I’m completely unable to engender wisdom within myself, yet the Scriptures call me to live wisely. I desperately need help to live wisely. The good news is that God has given us a command that we could not possibly follow without His help. Which really is the story of redemption, sanctification, and glorification from beginning to end.

3. If you’re lame enough to have to pray to get by, then at least doubt whether God can or will give you wisdom. (v3) It is a terrifying Scriptural reality that our prayers can be hindered. We can pray and God choose not hear us because of our sin. We need to know what can hinder our prayers, as these are things we can control. Everything that can hinder our prayers as seen is Scripture is active disobedience to the Lord. A husband’s prayers are hindered if he does not show his wife honor and respect (1 Peter 3:7). God calls the prayers of the disobedient an abomination (Prov 28:9). That puts these prayers in the same category as child-sacrifice and homosexuality.

Likewise, James 1:6-8 says that our prayers will go unanswered if we doubt God’s ability to give us the wisdom we ask for. A natural question is “why?” Why does a little bit of doubt poison the well so much that God will not give wisdom to someone who understands his desperate need for wisdom, but doesn’t have the faith to be confident in God? It’s because fundamentally, doubting God’s ability to keep His promises is rank unbelief. This kind of unbelief makes light of the Cross, claiming that the guarantee of the death of God Himself isn’t enough to convince us of God’s love and trustworthiness. (Romans 8:32) The Cross is meant to provide us with confidence that God will keep His promises. “I gave you my Son, the greatest sacrifice a Father could ever give. How is it that you still doubt me?”

I don’t mean to imply that God only hears our prayers if our hearts are purged of all unbelief. I’m so riddled with sin and unbelief that I’ll never have a pure heart to bring before God until glorification. Rather, God expects honesty and dependence upon Him. When there is doubt, the proper response is to say with the doubting father in Mark 9:24, “I believe! Help my unbelief!” That’s a shout of contradictory desperation. “I trust you! Help trust as I do not trust you!” And yet the contradiction is reality, as the war between the grace of God and broken power of sin still rages in our hearts.

4. Book a trip on the USS Leisure. After all, wisdom isn’t too hard to find and understanding comes without effort. (v4) Just glancing at this verse doesn’t communicate ease. “Seek.” “Search.” These aren’t cushy desk-job verbs. They’re back-breaking, sweat-producing activities. Buried treasure is not found next to your Rolaids in the top drawer of your roll-top. It is not an accident that Solomon describes searching for wisdom in these active terms. If you are not actively seeking wisdom, you aren’t gaining wisdom. Plunking yourself down in front of Facebook or YouTube does not teach you how to live a life that is God-glorifying and self-satisfying. If you aren’t making an effort to know Scripture, than you aren’t making an effort to be wise.

5. Search for that buried treasure infrequently and randomly. You’re bound to get lucky eventually. (v4) People who recognize their desperate need for something aren’t identified by their dispassionate indifference. No, desperation is marked by an all consuming obsession with fixing the problem. When the doctor comes back with a grim look on his face and says “Cancer,” the patient’s life is completely reoriented around the primary goal of killing off the life-threatening cells. He wouldn’t dare miss a chemo treatment, hoping that one of the treatments would just get lucky and heal him.

Missional Method

Why don’t we share the gospel from the Gospels? I wonder if the gospel would sound more attractive if we shared the story of Christ instead of doctrinal bullet points.

Guarding Means Giving

One day you and I and everyone else who reads this post will be the occasion for black suit coats to be donned, dark blouses to be worn, flowers to be stacked. Regardless of long it will be, one day you and I will die. A friendly pastor will preach the gospel to a host of our friends, relatives, and unbelieving coworkers. Nice bulletins will be printed and given to everyone in attendance, giving a brief overview of our lives. There will be the slideshow filled with pictures that will make people smile backed by music which we enjoyed but now causes smiles because of its quaintness. A relative—sister? son?—will share a funny anecdote or two. Maybe about how you gave up the promotion and the wealth because you knew it was right to be there for your kids, to raise them in the Lord. Or maybe you and I will die young. And there won’t be any children to raise in Lord. Instead tears will accompany a sermon about the potential we had and the tragedy of losing so bright a young person. No man knows the length of his days. But every funeral is an answer to a very serious charge: “Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you.”

Paul said this to Timothy right before his own execution. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you. And now, through two millennia of faithful believers guarding the gospel that has been entrusted to them, Paul is standing before you and me issuing the same command. The gospel and years of wisdom regarding Christian living has been entrusted to you and me. We’re momentary players. Someday we’ll die. What then for the gospel?

This summer I’ve been reading through Jerry Bridges’ classic book, The Pursuit of Holiness. Emblazoned on the back cover in large, striking letters is the statement “Holiness: The Christian’s joint venture with God.” That phrase caused me to search the Scriptures in a new way. And I found that the Christian life is full of active verbs. Church in Ephesus, build one another up in love. You build one another up. Christians, go unto all the world and preach the Gospel. You go and preach the Gospel. Timothy, guard the gospel. You guard the gospel. Not “exist and let the Spirit guard the Gospel.” You guard the Gospel. The Lord is not looking for empty shells to indwell. The Holy Spirit is not a hermit crab. Rather He does something more wonderful; He transforms us—giving us both the desire and the ability to do good works. We hold the gospel in our hands, as He holds our hands. And yet the command to guard the gospel is given to us.

Guarding means giving. We’re entrusted with the gospel message. But before us it was entrusted to someone else. And before them, someone else. We’re sentries who are called to guard the gospel not just for our time, but until the Lord returns. Usually sentries are concerned only with protecting the object until they’re relieved. They’re unconcerned about the future or even what the object it is they guard with their lives. We’re different. We’re guarding the message of salvation. Of the God come down from heaven to earth intent upon dying on a cross to provide a way of salvation to wretched men who deserve hell. The sentries at the foot of the cross made sure Jesus was dead. We guard the gospel so that His death isn’t in vain.

The Middle Ages is a graveyard of the Christian faith. Those who were supposed to be spreading the good news of Jesus Christ hoarded it like a squirrel afraid of the winter, terrified that their holiness would be compromised by contamination with the world. There were few men raised up to be mighty in the Scriptures and the defense of the faith. And so Christianity almost died out.

Guarding means giving. A good sentry does not merely tell his successor that he must guard, but rather how to guard. Enemy bullets may target the sentry. Infiltrators must be apprehended. Exhaustion tugs the eyelids in the dead of night. A good sentry tells his disciple how to position himself within the bulwark never failing to shield himself from the hail of lead. A good sentry equips his disciple how to discern false doctrine from the real deal. A good sentry prepares his disciple to weather the exhaustion and discouragement which befall him in the darkest hours.

It took me about two weeks to order my thoughts enough to get past paragraphs 1 and 2. Discipleship is a passion in my life. And so that question was left hanging in my mind: What then for the gospel? Last night I learned that a church member’s college-age daughter was in a horrible traffic accident. Several youth and youth group leaders were on their way to a bible study when their van was hit by a Jeep. There was one fatality: the church’s youth pastor. His time at his sentry post was much shorter than he ever imagined.

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

I’m young. I’m inexperienced in ministry. I don’t have much wisdom to give. God doesn’t care about our age. His charge is for all His people. On a Roman hill our sin played the sentry, keeping Christ on the cross until it was finished. And now, by the renewing, transforming power of the Holy Spirit, you and I get to be sentries of the resurrection. Guard it. Give it.

What I’m Saying Tonight

Today marks the start of Outreach Week at TMC. This evening, I’ve been asked to preach for a church high school youth group. This is my first full-length sermon, so pray for me! I’ll be preaching out of Numbers 23:19-24. Here’s the conclusion of the sermon. It will be a little choppy, because you don’t have the context of the first twenty-five minutes of sermon.

 

Having grown up in the church, I am really concerned that kids think about their faith. They don’t realize that God has no grandchildren. I can easily  fill up both hands with friends who have walked away from the church and the gospel after graduating high school. I know how easy it is to become a parrot, who speaks what he hears and never believes what he says. The Lord looks at the heart, not the words. And this means all my goods words avail me nothing if my heart does not love the Lord. I praise God that my parents instilled into me from an early age that Jesus doesn’t love me just because He loves them. The point of my sermon can be summed up as this: Are you a parrot? Or are you a child of God?

 

 

ARE YOU A PARROT?

NUMBERS 23:19-24 

 

C. It’s Matter of Life and Death

 

It is absolutely critical to realize something: Balaam was not a believer. I cannot stress this enough. Look at what Balaam said about God. And then understand that he was not a believer.

 

Balaam heard the words of God. He spoke the words of God. He evangelized for God. And Balaam is in hell.

 

He is proof that it is entirely possible to agree with the words of God—what we would call the Bible—and never actually believe it.

 

I grew up in church. I’ve attended Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, Wednesday prayer services, AWANA, youth group. And you know what; none of it justifies me before the Lord. Attending church does not mean believing Jesus.  

 

Let me ask you a question: Have you come to the place where you realized that you can’t save yourself? Have you said, “Jesus, I am a sinner, please come and be Lord of my life”? Have you surrendered your life to Christ fully?

 

Balaam was unwilling to surrender his life to Christ. Remember what Peter said in 2 Peter 2: 15? Balaam  “loved the wages of unrighteousness.” Balaam was unwilling to humble himself before the Lord and admit he needed to obey God.

 

Jesus warned us against following the foolishness of Balaam. In Matthew 6:20 He says But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

Another famous verse, I know. But remember—God does not lie. Balaam refused to submit himself to the very words he was speaking. He didn’t believe the words. He didn’t trust the words. In the end, Balaam understood the words he spoke. Remember how we said God was on the warpath and He would win? Balaam joined the losing side, and now is suffering for that decision. Balaam stored up for himself treasures on this earth, and they availed him nothing.

 

 

Unlike Balaam, we are still alive today. We still have the opportunity to trust Jesus. Guys, if you haven’t trusted the Lord, you need to. Learn from a man who didn’t. Balaam wishes right now he had truly listened to what he was saying. If you don’t know Jesus Christ personally; if you haven’t admitted your need for Him; if you don’t have a desire to obey Him and His Word—please, learn from the foolishness of Balaam.

 

Success Is Not

Success is not: 

 

Having a very good wing event

Dying a martyr’s death for the sake of Christ in a brutal way in an unreached place

Having daily devotions

Praying for an hour a day

Happiness

Writing books which impact thousands or millions for the cause of Christ

Pastoring a church where the attendance is six times larger than the town you grew up in

Ministering in a place where you will be forgotten

Leading the most dynamic small group in Oak Manor

Being liked or perceived as a nice guy by the people I see frequently

Being known by people at The Master’s College

Being an RA

Getting three hours of sleep because I was at the emergency room with someone all night

Reading a book on humility

Writing a book on humility

Being famous

Being hated by the world because I’m obnoxious for the gospel

Enforcing the dress code

Being percieved as an “up and comer”

Going to every chapel and taking good notes

Embarking on a great humanitarian crusade

Being comfortable

Having a worn-out, heavily-underlined Bible

 

 

 

 

 

All of the above can be evidences of a successful life. However, in and of themselves, they are not successful. The Lord looks at and cares about the heart. Many of these will and must spring out of a heart which passionately beats to know the Lord more deeply. However, there is only one true measure of success as God defines it.

 

 

 

 

Success is:

Ministering worthy of the glory of God wherever He has placed you with whatever responsibilities He has given you out of a desire to glorify Him and love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

 

 

 

AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL,

AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.

Mark 12:30