Category: Gospel Life

“If you DECLARE the gospel and don’t LIVE IT – you will confuse people.
If you LIVE the gospel and don’t DECLARE IT – you will condemn people.”
— Steve Wilson

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Preach the Word!

Preach the word…a simple command. It’s certainly easy enough to understand. That’s what Paul told Timothy to do…

“…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Tim 4:2)

Listen to the seriousness…the gravity of this charge that Paul gives in this prelude…

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:” (2 Tim 4:1)

A charge like that makes it very clear how important preaching is. The phrase “solemnly charge” is translated from one word that carries the idea of giving a forceful order or directive. And to top that off, it’s given “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.”

Question: How much more weight can that charge carry?
Answer: None!

In fact there is no task in ministry that is more important than preaching. It is the God ordained means to convey His truth. Any other ministry that a church does is secondary, which makes preaching paramount. It really is all about the “Primacy of Preaching.”

Jesus certainly thought so…

“But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.” (Luke 4:43–44)

…And if Jesus makes it preeminent, who are we to make it less???

The sad reality is…that is not what attracts many people to a local church. Instead for many it’s tradition, friends, family, fellowship, geographic location or children’s programs.

But what should be the attraction from a Biblical perspective? Here is a quote from a must-read book called Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers, by Mike Abendroth…

“The preaching of God’s Word — that must be at the very center of God’s assembled flock. Biblical preaching has hit the skids and has been replaced with the latest popular gruel that is deficient in nutrients because it is ashamed of the words of Jesus and His apostles. People attend worship services with consumer mentalities and the wrong object in mind. They go to please ‘me,’ not to worship God…They raise their hands to music with a fast tempo, supposedly ‘feeling’ the Holy Spirit, but when the preaching begins, all the hands go down.”

Abendroth makes this very telling statement…

“The obsolescence of preaching in not happening before us, it has already happened.”

He continues…

“The church has exchanged her preaching birthright for a watered-down stew of…programs that are designed to fill the pews. This ‘stew’ will not fill the person in the pew with hygienic, sound, meaty doctrine, which is critical for healthy Christian living. We need men at our sacred desks today who will not apologize for cutting the Word of truth straightly, in context, with boldness, directed at the heart, and carefully exegeted.”

Well guess what Grace Community Church of Bowling Green…we have those men!!!

The fact that God is pleased to let us have this rare gift is a privilege that is immeasurably awesome. Please hear me on this…there are tens of thousands of Christians who are starving to have what God has so graciously given us. Please…let’s not ever take this for granted. Instead of hammering the preacher, we need to be thanking God for using him to hammer us with the truth.

Let’s back up to last Sunday’s sermon.

Question: How convicted was I?
Answer: Very!

Were you convicted? I hope you were. If so then please join me as we “take it squarely on the chin.” Then let’s get up off the floor and get to work; doing what Jesus Christ commanded us to do…declare the gospel.

This should be our motivation as we live the gospel. You see…if preaching is proclaiming, and it is…then in a sense we should all be “preaching.”

“…and how will they hear without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14)

After all…these instructions come from the Prince of Preachers who is the object of our preaching.

How often do ministry opportunities slip by us because we do not live the gospel in that moment? It could be that very person we’ve been praying for…asking God for that perfect chance to declare the gospel.

“If you DECLARE the gospel and don’t LIVE IT – you will confuse people.
If you LIVE the gospel and don’t DECLARE IT – you will condemn people.”
— Steve Wilson

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Steadfastness

Steadfast…one of my favorite words. It means to be fast fixed, firm, resolute, constant or immovable…not fickle or wavering. Doesn’t that describe the kind of people we want to have around, especially when life gets stormy?

Our English word steadfast appears seven times in the New Testament and is usually connected with how or why we are to be that way, like Paul’s exhortation to the church at Corinth…

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor 15:58)

Truth is that way…steadfast, immovable. It never changes. It is solid like a rock…just like the Author of truth…the Solid Rock who never changes…

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8)

Christians are called to be this way…steadfast. It means we know who we are and whose we are. It means constantly living in the identity we have in Christ, never forgetting….

“…His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (2 Pet 1:3)

This includes the promises He has given us…

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Pet 1:4)

And because of this Peter goes on to say we need to be diligent about our faith…

“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.” (2 Pet 1:5–7)

If we are faithful to do this we will not be “useless or unfruitful.” On the other hand if we are not diligent it shows we are “blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” (2 Pet 1:9)

“Having forgotten…” It could be said this way. He’s forgotten his identity. One of my favorite authors, Paul Tripp, calls this “identity amnesia” which is always followed by “identity replacement.” What is this “identity replacement?” It means when my identity is no longer in Christ, I will try to find it in other things…that is to say…things that are not steadfast.

That’s the world we live in…fickle and wavering…operating on top of sand that is constantly shifting, all the while oblivious to the fact that their “house” could collapse at any time.

Now here is an interesting thing…

We live and work right beside these “unbelieving sand dwellers” every day. They live like there is no God; they ignore or even mock the One True Faith. So what do they do when their “house” is crumbling and being swept away by the torrential floods of trial and calamity? They frantically start grasping for the first thing that’s not moving…something steadfast…like maybe a Christian. And here is the privilege we have if we are being faithful to live the gospel. It could very well be one of us who they “grab onto” as they desperately search for answers.

Peter exhorts us to always be ready to declare the gospel…

“…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;” (1 Pet 3:15)

This means we always need to have a heart like the Psalm 1 man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

And this is the result…

“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psa 1:3)

That sounds like someone who is steadfast! And then one last note on this word…

As Peter was writing the last of what God would inspired him to write, he was warning about the last days and how we should be ready and watching…

“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless…” (2 Pet 3:14)

And then, knowing there would be many who are unstable, distorters of the truth he gives this last warning and exhortation…

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Pet 3:17–18)

“If you DECLARE the gospel and don’t LIVE IT – you will confuse people.
If you LIVE the gospel and don’t DECLARE IT – you will condemn people.”
— Steve Wilson

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That’s Not My Job!

With one week left before the General Electric Motor Plant closes its doors in Owensboro I’ve been reflecting on the 20 years that God was pleased to let me work there, thankful for the undeserved, abundant provision He allowed me. Many thoughts have gone through my mind including a particular phrase I used to hear, one I really disliked. Maybe you’ve heard it before. It goes like this…”That’s not my job!” Many are the times I would hear that when someone was asked to do even the tiniest task.

Then I thought about how often we as Christians are guilty of the same attitude. We may not speak those words but our actions say them when we have thoughts like, “I’ll let someone else do it.” That’s called presumption. It shows itself when we leave something undone that we could have done because we knew that “someone else will surely take care of it.” It can even be in the simplest of ways such as how we leave something we’ve used, like a room or some kind of resource like a tool or an appliance. How often do we think about the person who will come after us who will use the same thing? Will they have to repair it before it can be used? Will they have to clean up the mess we left for them to do? How many of us would go out of our way to actually leave it better than the way we found it.

This may seem so basic and elementary, in fact, many times we just don’t think about it. But we should think about it because these “little things” are true expressions of how we treat one another. So how should we treat one another? Alright…how many answered…”well duh!” That’s right because it’s one of the most quoted verses in all the Bible. No one ever said it better than Jesus did…

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you…” (Matt 7:12)

Even the world knows this verse right? But it’s usually because they want you to know how they should be treated. In fact most of the time it is understood in its negative form. That is to say, “I won’t do this to you because I don’t want you to do it to me.” Even the ancient philosopher Confucius had this one. He said it this way, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” But that falls so far below the standard that Jesus was teaching. It doesn’t even come close because the motivation behind it is really selfish. Refrain from harm to someone else so they won’t harm me isn’t motivated by love, but rather, self-interest. Jesus is the only one to state it in a positive way. “Do unto others…”

This requires a selfless love…a love that does not serve in order to prevent our own harm or preserve our own welfare. Instead, this love serves entirely for the one being served…in a way we would like to be served…whether or not we receive anything in return. This is how we are to love one another. Jesus said so Himself in the last part of that verse…

“…for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 7:12)

What did He mean by, “This is the law?” Remember how Jesus summed up the entire law this way…

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:37–40)

It’s the Law of Love. Paul restates it…

“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Gal 5:14)

A recent example of this very thing was to see many coming alongside the Cook family several weeks ago. What a beautiful testimony of “love one another” that was. I will never forget it.

That’s how we should be all the time, even in the everyday “mundane” activities of life. It is exactly how Jesus taught us to live the gospel. Notice, He didn’t say that people would know who His disciples were by how much theology they knew or how often they prayed and read their Bible, as important as those are, but rather…

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

And when people see Christians loving one another like this and wonder, “How do you do that?” …the answer they desperately need to hear is only found as we declare the gospel to them.

So the next time we may be tempted to forsake a task for someone else to do, let’s have this attitude instead…

That’s not their job.

Gospel Life Today

“If you DECLARE the gospel and don’t LIVE IT – you will confuse people.
If you LIVE the gospel and don’t DECLARE IT – you will condemn people.”
— Steve Wilson

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Who Am I Praying To?

It was a joy traveling to the land of my youth [Pennsylvania] and attending my high school reunion two weeks ago. Ok I’ll tell you…Class of 1975. Two weeks prior, one of my classmates who “hosted” the event asked me in a Face Book Message, “Would you be willing to give a brief non-denominational blessing before we eat at the reunion?” I was happy to say yes and for the next two weeks, knowing there would be over 200 people there, I thought a lot about what I would say before praying.

I thought about the months leading up to this and the many posts on Face Book about the reunion. There was quite a “buzz” beginning to stir among those planning to attend. Some were writing about many interesting things; at times revealing a very distorted worldview and in many cases an utter ignorance of who God is. I also remember reading that over 30 classmates had died since graduation which averages out to one a year since then. I thought about the very real possibility that some who would be at this reunion would not be at the next one. I saw this as an opportunity for them to hear from one of their own, one whom they seldom heard from in school, about the One who had since then, changed his life forever and wanted the same for them.

My plan was simple. I wanted my classmates to know that a request to pray meant something. These weren’t just words being spoken to appease some formality. I was going to pray to someone; the one true and living God who has revealed Himself in the only source of truth, His Word, the Bible. I also wanted them to know the only way to know Him was through Jesus Christ; and then to encourage any of them to come talk to me during the evening if they wanted to know more. Those were my intentions. However, that is not what happened.

Upon arrival and check-in the hostess greeted Carolyn and I and confirmed that I would offer the blessing. I confirmed and then asked if it would be alright to make a few comments before prayer and it would be less than 10 minutes. She told me I had 30 seconds! So what I had to say was left unsaid. My immediate thought was I should not have asked “permission.” I especially thought this after it was all over and saw that nothing would have been lost on the entire evening even if I had taken 15 minutes. I have to trust that God’s providence didn’t allow it.

Then…nine days later I was asked to give the invocation to open Warren County Fiscal Court for the day. The judge told me to, “say whatever is on your heart.” And so it was a privilege to tell those present and watching on television that the wisdom they needed only comes from God and the only way to know Him was through Jesus Christ, His Son.

I say all this because as we live the gospel from day to day sometimes we are asked to pray. Many of those requests come from unbelievers. They need to know we have confidence that we pray to a God who really does hear and answer prayer…

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4:16)

…and that confidence comes because “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…” (Heb 4:14)

But you have to know the High Priest because there are not many roads to heaven…only one.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)

Even something as simple as a prayer request can be a wonderful time to declare the gospel.