you provide the caption (friday’s funny)

And Daveed danced before the Lord with all his might …

Milli Vanilli meets Kirk Franklin …

Now that is a baptism of the Spirit …

brittle crazy glass

I’m a preacher and I love the poetry of George Herbert (though I don’t always understand his poems or much of the poetry I read), hence this poem:

Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?

    He is a brittle crazy glass;

Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford

    This glorious and transcendent place,

    To be a window, through thy grace.

But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,

    Making thy life to shine within

The holy preachers, then the light and glory

    More reverend grows, and more doth win;

    Which else shows waterish, bleak, and thin.

Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one

    When they combine and mingle, bring

A strong regard and awe; but speech alone

    Doth vanish like a flaring thing,

    And in the ear, not conscience, ring.

love (III)

I love this gospel-love poem by George Herbert:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
        Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
        From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
        If I lack’d anything.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;
        Love said, “You shall be he.”
“I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
        I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
        “Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame
        Go where it doth deserve.”
“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”
        “My dear, then I will serve.”
“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
        So I did sit and eat.

 

speaking the truth in love … (sermon redux)

From a sermon on being a “Church-Centered Community of People”:

The third word is Community [and when you hear this word, I want you to think “meaningful, faith-building relationships”]: when we say community, we mean by this “life together.”  A healthy disciple of Christ and a good church member seeks to be actively involved in other believer’s lives. This just follows the previous point – to be committed to others is to love them and that means relationships; it means active participation, active involvement.

But we mean something a little more substantial and less superficial. We mean relationships of a certain kind, more than just friendly words or “water-cooler talk” or just showing up or even your mere physical presence – I mean meaningful, significant, edifying, faith-building, sin-correcting, Jesus-increasing relationships. See, the idea is a particular kind of relationship – relationships that are spiritual, eternal. Beloved, I can talk about Alabama football with an atheist and I can provide a meal or money for a devil-worshiper, but I can’t strengthen them in the faith and they can’t do that to me either. So, I mean spiritual, God-entranced, faith-based relationships, not just being a good friend or neighbor [though that is important to].

And again, this is conditional on what you think is important and has the priority. If you are God-entranced and the eternal or spiritual has the priority in your life, the way you live will be different. I have a group of guys I meet with and we are reading through the book Pilgrim’s Progress. [Someone] pointed out at our last meeting how he was impressed by the nature of the two pilgrim’s relationship – it was that of spurring one another on in the faith. And he said something insightful [which by the way spurred me on in the faith] – if you have the same goal as another of heaven, of fighting the fight of faith, of hating sin, loving Jesus, fighting sin, and wanting obedience, then you will seek out others who will help you do that, you will gravitate toward those who are like-minded and will help you.

Who do you have in your life that is really spurring you on to Jesus, and who are you spurring on to Jesus?

So, maybe you are thinking, “OK, I’m with you. I need to actively involved in spiritual relationships with other believers at HBC. . . . What does that look like?” Let me give you a picture of the kind of relationships you should be cultivating (takes work); relationships that are characterized by two things: encouragement and exhortation.

When I say encouragement, I mean primarily the caring for others in the congregation who are struggling. Paul told the Thessalonian believers to “encourage one another” (1 Thess 5:11) and “admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” (1 Thess. 5:14) This is the ministry of binding up the wounds of our fellow believers. This is the ministry of bearing one another’s burdens. This can happen through words, prayers, financial support, baby-sitting … in other words, it’s when a member sees a need in some other member’s life and meets it.

So, who are you encouraging right now? Who have you encouraged lately? Friends, we have a lot of people in our church right now who need it. Open your eyes and begin by simply asking them how you can pray for them.

On the other hand, are you being encouraged right now? If you are not being encouraged then it is possible that you are probably not involved enough with others or encouraging them. [Those who get the most encouragement from others are those who usually encourage others the most].

Now, let me say this. I think our church does a pretty good job with this. I watch you and when someone is struggling either with sickness or finances, you spring into action fairly well. We are not perfect but you do well. Where we do struggle is with the next one (and I say this because I think most all churches struggle with this) … exhortation.

When I say “exhortation” I mean, primarily, speaking God’s Word, the truth, into others lives or having others do that to you. Now, I am doing that right now. So, you are participating in the ministry of exhortation in some way. And that’s one reason why worship attendance is important. But what we want is more; we want all the followers of Jesus to speak into other’s lives and have other followers of Jesus speaking into their lives. As much as it pains me to admit it, sermons are not enough. If they were, the NT would say, “Brothers just preach sermons and listen to sermons” and there would not be the multitude of verses that say things like this:

Hebrews 3:13 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Ephesians 4:15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

So, this could take the form of teaching in a class or Bible study, correcting, sharing in a group setting, just sharing what you have been learning in your own study of God’s Word, speaking a verse and explaining it to someone who is struggling [after all friends, when people are hurting due to some tragedy or stress, they are often prone to believe the lies of the enemy about their situation or about God or about themselves, they need someone to come along and remind them of the truth; and it needs to be word-saturated, more than just “it’ll be OK.”; and it needs to be at the right time but it needs to be said because what they need is faith and faith comes by hearing] or confronting someone about a sin in their life with God’s truth. We need this because the path that leads away from Jesus begins just a step off the path that leads to Jesus. It’s a smooth road off the narrow, uphill, hard road. And it begins with just one degree off; and so we need all the help we can get from others to pull us back on the point. And here’s a greater concern. At some time in your life, you will need some correction, major correction. At some point in your life, you will more than likely begin to get drunk with the wine of this world (the wine of self-fulfillment via another lover, pornography, money, things, achievements, career), and you will stagger into sin, and in your stupor you will not think straight, and you need someone to help sober you up and nurse you through your spiritual hangover. And I just pray to God that you will have somebody who will do that for you and when they do you will listen to them.]

Brothers and sisters, do you have someone speaking God’s Word in love into your life in specific ways addressing specific issues in your life? Why not ask someone to do that? Are you speaking into other’s lives? And sometimes know that you don’t have to have another’s permission to do that. God gives you the permission. It would be nice to have an invite but that doesn’t usually happen, especially if the person is in sin.

somebody has too much time on their hands … but i’m glad they do (friday’s funny)

the church as center

Another excerpt from my sermon on “A Church-Centered Community of People“:

The second word is “Centered” [think “priority” with this word]: we mean that this local group of believers is central to our lives, and I don’t just mean “heart” but in practical ways. We are saying that the local congregation of God’s people should not be on the edges of our lives. We believe this is fundamental to what it means to be God-entranced because to be God-entranced is to put God at the center of your life, not on the edges.

But think more with me about this: we affirm that God’s people are central to God himself, after all, God’s people are so much on God’s heart and so great in his affections that he died for them – remember that. How much does God cherish his church? For God so loved his church that he sent his one and only Son to pay the penalty of hell for her. That’s how much.

Now, It seems logical or easily deduced that if the church is that important to God, it’ll be pretty important to those who follow him and call themselves God-centered. Do you see how this follows? You can’t be passionate for God and not passionate about what he is passionate about. You can’t be focused on God and not be focused on what he is focused on.

So, practically speaking this means that God’s people have a priority with your time, resources, labor, and affections – they are not to get the leftovers of your time or resources or affections or labors any more than God should get the leftovers of your time, resources, talents, affections, and so on.

That’s why our booklet says, “We emphasize the priority of the community of faith over so many things that can occupy our lives, such as work, recreation, leisure, and more.” And that needs to be said because we live in a time, and culture, and frankly a community, where often the idea is that “if we don’t have anything going on, we’ll gather with God’s people.” If a sport, a get-together, a “whatever” comes up, all too often the church gets pushed back or out of the way. We say to ourselves, “God will understand.” You are right – he might understand a whole lot more than you think.

And the Bible warns us of such an attitude. The Bible says things like:

Hebrews 10:24-25 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The Bible says in Acts 2:47 characterized the Jerusalem church as “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,”.

I’m not suggesting that you have to gather every day, but is such a verse an encouragement to us to gather less often or more, as much as possible, or as less as possible? Does such a verse not carry the feel of “when can I gather with God’s people?” [not the opposite] What do you think?

So I must ask you, “Do you find yourself committed more to your classmates, job, hobby, sport, team, …?” I am not saying you should spend more time here than at your job – you have to work. Church involvement and attendance is not a time-card you have to punch. That’s not the point. I am asking are you investing a significant portion of yourself into your church? I am asking, “What kind of portion do God’s people get? What portion of your time, resources, your presence, your prayers, your voice, your ear, your heart, does your church get? Do you love your church with the leftovers of your life … your church family or commitments or attendance goes if something you deem “more important” comes up? Or do they have a larger share of your life than the other things in your life?”

Friends, part of this is simply a matter of what your priorities are in terms of spiritual versus earthly, eternal versus temporal. Do you see that the battle is largely at this point? Do you see that a commitment to active involvement in other believer’s lives for the purpose of growing Jesus in them (and yourself) and decreasing sin in them (and yourself) is a spiritual one? Could it be that such involvement has little place in your life because the spiritual has less of a place in your life period and you may have a greater priority on earthly, temporal things? Friend, consider that please. And consider this: do you understand that if you are sowing into this world to get whatever this world can give you then all you will get is what this world can give you … but if you invest in the eternal then you will get eternal returns on your investment?

And this goes back to my introductory sermon: our greatest threat is not “worldliness” in terms of gross rebellion but “worldliness” in terms of being Christians who basically see God as the one who helps us live a moral life, gets us out of jambs when we are in trouble, while we pursue the American Dream; friend do you see Christianity like that? If so, you will begin to see the church like that as well, another tool in your bag that helps you become a well-rounded person, instead of something that grips you and holds you and you begin to center your life on it. Brothers and sisters, the Christian life is a whole lot more than some sustained moral effort to cultivate a list of private virtues and avoid a list of private vices and the church exists to help make that happen. The church is not about helping you pursue your dreams or giving your children a well-rounded life or. It is nothing less than a living commitment to the living God.

the church of Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

“If we want to see what the Great Commission looks like on the ground, this is it! … A surprising gospel created a surprising community, living on the fragrance of the age to come instead of the fading fumes of this passing age.” (The Gospel Commission, Michael Horton, p140)

a church-centered people (sermon redux)

Recently I preached a sermon on being church-centered. Here was the first point:

The first word is “Church” [think “identity” with this word]: we don’t mean building. We mean “church” as in a gathered group of believers who have joined together, made a covenant together, and regularly assemble together in order to know Jesus and make him known.

And what is it that these believers believe? They believe in Christ. They believe the gospel. They believe the Bible. That is, they believe what the Bible says about Christ and the gospel [that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – the wages of sin is death – the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus – that Jesus was God in the flesh who obeyed God the Father perfectly and then died on the cross paying the wages of our sin and granting righteousness to all who will trust in Him alone – and trusting in Jesus alone means turning from sin and turning to Christ]. And that’s what unites them.

And beloved, such a group of people is at the core of God’s plan. As Josh Harris wrote: “God’s plan for glorifying himself in the world has always been a group plan. He has always planned to redeem a people. And he’s always revealed himself to the world through a nation.” God has always called to himself a group of people … not just individuals. Just read you’re your Bible from cover to cover.

That’s why we put the word “join” in our purpose statement. This is why we believe in membership. We affirm that a believer should identify himself as a follower of Christ (not by himself) but with others who do the same thing, that they should covenant together to know Christ and make him known. That’s what membership is. But what we want is a certain type of membership; a committed membership; so we wrote in our booklet that “We emphasize the idea of ‘meaningful membership’ – that membership is not merely a name on a roll, but a living commitment to and participation with other believers.”

See, as far as I can tell, there is absolutely no evidence that Lone-Ranger Christianity is acceptable to God [“just me and Jesus”]. Friend, you can’t worship the Lord fully and completely without being involved in the lives of other believers. You’re thinking, “Boy, that seems like an overstatement Preacher Pugh. Come on.” Well, read again what is somewhat of a theme verse through this series: Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Now think about this for a moment. Do you see the reference to worship? Furthermore, do you see that Paul is calling worship how you live your life, not what you do in a worship service? Now, here’s the thing. Right after he calls them to live a life of worship, the rest of the entire chapter is all about serving one another, and loving one another, and doing life together as a congregation. Do you see this? In fact, right after he tells them to live a life of worship to God, he tells them to use their gifts to build each other up in the body of Christ. Do you see? The implication is this: I can’t live a life of true worship to the Lord without actively serving my brothers and sisters in Christ and building them up in the faith.

Again, as always, it’s a question of identity: who am I? I am a born-again, redeemed-by-the-blood-of-Christ, believer who gathers together and is joined together with a group of believers called HBC. That’s who I am. Do you see that my identity in Christ is not just individual. It is community. It is a church. See, my identity is that of a beloved child of God, but friends, I am not an only child. I have a family. I have brothers and sisters. And that means I can’t live my life irrespective of or in neglect of or without consideration of that family. [Can you imagine me not showing up at my house for a few days … or just going out and buying a new house without consulting my wife?] See, I have to and I am supposed to and I have the privilege of doing “life together in a community.”

Friends, this is one of the reasons why I am calling on this church to put an end to the idea of an inactive church member; there is no biblical category for such a thing, unless they are too sick to be here, or too old, or maybe on a temporary leave due to job or training or education. Otherwise, such an idea is demonic – it is not the wisdom of God.  So when we talk about membership, we have a certain kind of membership in mind. A membership that is not some loose attachment to a building or location or group of people, but is characterized by centering our lives on a community of believers.

what those who oppose Christ are telling us?

How do the followers of Jesus make disciples?

“Jesus did not imagine that his example was enough to win the day. … The primary sign of discipleship was the acceptance of Jesus’ teaching concerning himself. Charges of blasphemy and even the offense expressed by the disciples themselves were due to his teaching concerning himself. Jesus prepared his followers for imminent persecution for the sake of his name and in their witness to his saving work. The persecutions recounted in the book of Acts are all said to have been on account of testifying to Christ’s person and work. the Jewish authorities did not command Jewish Christians to stop feeding the hungry or improving Jerusalem’s culture but charged them to stop preaching Christ as the one on whom they are to call for salvation.” (Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission, p140)

Think about it. A world that Jesus said would hate him will not oppose you for doing nice things to other people. But it will get madder than the devil if you preach the gospel. Might be a hint for us.

how does the gospel help me love others? (sermon redux)

Let’s think how the gospel helps us love others. Why do we struggle to love others, as we ought? Why do we sin against each other? Why is it that we struggle with this?

It’s because at the root of our failure to love others is selfishness … it is the worship of self. It is the idea that I am king of the universe, the center, and that my world should work the way I want it to in order to make my joy complete. It’s an entitlement attitude. The truth is we all have this attitude and so we all think our world should operate a certain way. And when someone else gets in the way of that happening, I hurt him or her. Or I see someone else as a means or a tool to make me happy. Do you see? My failure to love others and sin against them is rooted in my drive to make sure I am happy or get whatever it is I think I need for myself and/or think I am entitled to. And it is an absolute failure to think about the gospel.

Look again at Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

See the command? The command is to love others. But the command is again connected to the gospel, to the work of Jesus. It’s almost as if Paul has turned Jesus’ own phrase that he spoke before the cross, not “love your neighbor as yourself” but “love your neighbor the way you have been loved by Christ.”

Clearly, what the Bible says is that we should love sacrificially; we should love others in a costly way. But the phrase “as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” is pregnant with all that the Bible says about the death of Jesus for us.

So you love others even in a costly way – you remember that it cost Jesus everything, infinitely more than anything you have to give up. And that means you forgive others freely. Why is it that you will not forgive someone? It’s because you want them to pay for what they did to you. It’s that simple. But you have forgotten that Jesus paid for your sins at a much greater price (and if they are a Christian then he paid for their sins to). Sure it will cost you to forgive but it cost Jesus infinitely more. It means you serve others freely and sacrificially, even if it costs you time or money or recreation/entertainment or it may cause you some kind of emotional harm as you lay yourself down for each other; beloved, we should just know this; if we serve other sinners, we’ll probably get hurt; that’s kind of what happened to Jesus.

And you love others in an unconditional way – you know the gospel; you know that Jesus did not die for you and pay the penalty for your sins because you were smart enough, good enough, likable enough, pretty enough; indeed, you were unlovely, dead in your sins, but he loved you even when you were dead in your trespasses. And so you look at others not as tools to make you happy or increase your success. You look at them as Christ has looked at you, selflessly. He did not need you and does not need you now. You can’t add anything to him. But you need him and he loves you. That’s how we are to see others.

In other words, you love others even though they haven’t “earned” your love with their performance because you know that the only thing you earned from God was his judgment; but he was and is so rich and lavish in his mercy toward you, you just can’t get over it and so you love others. See, when I do not love others, the problem is that my math is off. And I need to spend time measuring the infinite distance between what I deserved as a sinner and what I have received as a forgiven saint (as Stephen Altrogge wrote).

Impatience and anger and unforgiveness and adultery and whatever is almost always rooted in a faulty sense of entitlement. Because I have put myself in the center of my life I think I deserve something better. And I sin against others and withhold love from others because they are not doing their part to make my world better. My gospel math is off. I have forgotten just what God has done for me.

This is what we sound like: “I can’t believe that person said that to me – I can’t believe my kids don’t respect and obey me – why doesn’t my wife appreciate me? – why doesn’t my boss recognize me? – I can’t believe so and so did not give me that or help me with this or did this to me or did this to my kids.”

Do you see that your math is off? Beloved, the only “why” questions we should be asking are: “Why would God send his only Son to save a wretch like me? Why would God make Jesus who knew no sin to become my sin that I might reap all the rewards of eternal life in Christ? Why would I, an enemy of God and an idolater, be reconciled through the death of God’s Son in order that I might have union with him forever?” The only answer to these questions is that God loved me and gave himself for me.

The right thing to say is “I can’t believe that God gave me an inheritance that I did not earn instead of a hell that I did! I can’t believe Jesus hung on a cross in my place, instead of me! I can’t believe Jesus swallowed the wrath of God down to the last drop for my sin. I can’t believe that God has made me his beloved child!”

And see, that’s the issue isn’t. It’s hard to believe. The truth is, when we calculate the infinite distance between what we deserve and what God has given us, it’s too good to be true. And we then forget the truth of Ephesians 5:1, that we are God’s beloved children. Oh, we believe it intellectually, but functionally, practically speaking, we don’t. That’s why we get selfish.

But God reminds me that I am His beloved child. Do you know what that means? It means that God will take care of me and provide for me. It means I don’t have to worry about getting for myself all the stuff I think I need. It means I don’t have to run over others to get what I want or make others pay for it when they hurt me because I already have all I need – forgiveness, love, acceptance, God’s promise that he will take care of me and provide for me, an inheritance that will never fade, and so on. I have God … He’s my father and he said he will withhold no good thing from me. He’s my father and his word says in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?“ He will give me all I need.

See, here’s another example combining both things. Take the issue of being slow to anger (patient) or not easily offended. It’s your birthday and they don’t recognize you at church. “They recognized deacon ‘talks-a-lot’ why didn’t they recognize me.” GOSPEL MATH. “Do I really deserve to be honored before all these people? The truth is if they knew the things I have done, said, and thought, I would be so ashamed, not honored. And all that shame was put on Jesus anyway. So, I didn’t get what I deserved.” GOSPEL IDENTITY. And, I am the child of my Father. He knows me. He knows it’s my birthday. He knows all my needs. And he has accepted me and given me an inheritance. I don’t need man’s praise or approval. I have his. If they recognize me great and if they don’t, it’s probably better for me since I am so prone to pride anyway.”