Sin & Prayer

There are times in ministry that you sense and know that God's leading in a certain direction. This, I believe, is the case as we begin our journey into a deeper intimacy with our Savior through the study of prayer. I want to share some of the circumstances that have led me to begin a teaching a series on this important relationship aspect with the Father.

Primarily, I would have to admit that the greatest reason for the upcoming study comes from the impact our last study on sin had on me. The overall thesis was to see sin as God does.  So we began to unpack sin and the effects of sin in individuals, the church and its leadership. This quite frankly, drove me to a time of deep confession and more intense prayer. During all of this, I felt a definite need for a week of fasting and prayer where Psalm 139:23-24 was the focal point of this week and much was revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Prayer is something that I strive to always do better and do it with regularity but prayer and fasting is another matter altogether.  It is a discipline I had infrequently done in the past but not with much fervor or desperation behind it. That has begun to change as I realized how desensitized I had become on sin and the need to experience the fullness of God in my life. This is where I understood that my initial focus was wrong.  I initially was focusing on myself and knew that I had to refocus and start with Him.  Jesus, in teaching His disciples how to pray said start with "Our Father...Hallowed by thy name" (Matt6:9). There I came face to face with His holiness and His holiness is what uncovers us. When you come to that point, there is nothing that can be said or done. Just like every example we have in Scripture - you fall on your face before God and begin to confess your unworthiness. 

Ultimately what I came to know is that my view of God became my view and not His complete revealed truth as He has given us in Scripture. I had an unbalanced focus that concentrated on the God of mercy, forgiveness, love and acceptance. I still worshiped God, I still prayed to the Jehovah (Yahweh) but I worshiped Him through a golden calf that I had conjured up in my mind of who I wanted Him to be. The delivered people of Israel were still worshiping God too (Exodus 34), however, the golden calf allowed them to worship Him in a way that made them feel comfortable. You must understand, the golden calf never would condemn or bring about any conviction into their lives. In all reality, it was where they could worship however they wanted, which is nothing more than man-centered worship.

God's intent is that believers - both individually and collectively, remain in close communication with Him. Prayer is our path to receive understanding from God through Scripture. Only then can we move forward in radical obedience. Radical obedience that will cause us to give our very lives to pierce the darkness with the glorious light of the Gospel. A radical passion to see the holiness of God that causes us to hate sin - hate sin in our lives, in our churches and in our leadership. I truly believe if we as individuals fail in our prayers we fail everywhere.

I praise God for His atonement and covering of our sin. Although the nation of Israel sinned against God by worshiping through a golden calf, God had provided a provision for forgiveness. Yom Kippur is a special holiday that commemorates the forgiveness God provided to the children of Israel after they worshipped the golden calf. No, God doesn't overlook sin and their is always a cost for it, a cost that God willing paid (Rom 6:23). Praise God, for the Son, who is our Yom Kippur, our atonement (John 14:6).

The Journey of Prayer

We are starting a series on prayer this week at Mt Zion Baptist Church, and it’s a subject I enter with much fear and trepidation. On the one hand, it’s a subject that has been talked about, preached on and countless books have been written on the many different facets of prayer. 

Nevertheless, as I have begun to evaluate my own prayer life in light of the prayer life of Christ and His apostles, I find myself far away from the place of prayer where my Savior was at.  In other words, I have fallen into the trap of a theology of prayer that has been developed over the years based on clichés rather than sound doctrine.  Clichés like “pray this prayer, and you can be saved” or “prayer is just talking to God”.  Another good one is “prayer will change God’s mind”.  We even can support that one with Scripture (John 3:10, 1 Ch 21:15, etc.). Although I will agree that some of these clichés do have merit and are based on sound doctrine, I feel it’s time for me to know what prayer is all about and to look at the Biblical theology of prayer.  

So begins my journey, although, I understand right from the start that many of my questions and interest will not be satisfied as with most of my studies in Scripture. Rather as I study and practice what I will learn, I will soon realize that the more I know about this subject the more I will realize how far I have yet to go.  However, this is not disappointing for me, but often fuels my interest and brings me great satisfaction to know just a little more of an infinite God.  

The journey, as they say, is many times, sweeter  than the destination.  Especially if you are traveling with good company. Besides, with the things of God the journey can never end. You only rise and arrive at a place of breathtaking beauty, and there you sit to enjoy the vista and the exhilaration and satisfaction of reaching the top.

Nonetheless, you find it’s not the final destination, but a resting place.  Even so, while you sit in awesome wonder of a knowable God, you come to realize that there is yet another challenge – a greater challenge.  For what you could not see before is another mountain peak to climb, this one is a little higher and will require navigating through some tougher obstacles.  But your confidence, trust and faith in God has grown, and you know that the difficult journey will be good.  In reality, you begin to better understand it's all about the journey because this journey in knowing God will be a never ending journey that will just keep getting better.

Sin & Redemption

We at Mt Zion Baptist are shortly going to finish two studies. We have been unpacking the book of Ruth on Sunday evenings and looking at the doctrine of sin during the morning worship service. In these studies, we are at opposite ends of the infinite spectrum of God. What I mean by that is, Ruth is a book where you see God's sovereignty, protection, care and love as The Kinsman Redeemer. You see God in the background of every verse and in all the characters in the story. In the end, we are also surprised to know that we too are also part of that story in our own redemption. Then, on the opposite end of the continuum on Sunday mornings, we have looked at how God sees and judges sin. We see God's wrath and the cost of sin that requires death and how the perfect God/Man Christ Jesus has taken our wrath and atoned for our sins. A very heavy subject is the doctrine of sin. However, a doctrine that needs to once again be heralded from the pulpits of America that has grown apathetic and comfortable with its sin.

In looking at both sin and redemption like this has taken me on a roller coaster ride if emotions that no words can quite describe. I have literally fallen down on my face before a holy, holy, holy God as I have seen my sin more clearly in the light of seeing Him more clearly. Then as I look and understand more of the truth about God revealed in the book of Ruth, I have thrown up my hands and praised Him for the righteousness of His son, who was imputed onto me His righteousness and allows me to hidden and protected under His wing. Glory to God! Alleluia, praise the Lord! Blessed be His name!

This has driven me to seek with a passion to know God more. Like Paul said in Philippians 3:10 "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" I find that the more I understand of the truth that God has revealed of Himself the more I hunger and thirst to see His face and  to live a life that would bring glory to His name.

This lead me to read a small book by Tozer called The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life, which I would recommend to put on your reading list. In the very first chapter Tozer says a striking statement: "What comes to our when we think about God is the most important thing about us." Today, I would submit to you that for most in the Christian church there are very few thoughts of God and the thoughts we have are thoughts of a "god" that we have made up in our own minds. It's a god we have made up to suite our own spiritual needs. We have redefined God into who we want Him to be - a god that is okay with our nominal lukewarm Christianity and pet sins. The result has been a church that gathers together to worship an image that we've created.

George Whitefield

I believe it is crucial that we learn about our Christian heritage. We are blessed to be able to stand on the shoulders of great people who have uncompromisingly preached the Word of God and have given us the great doctrines of the Bible.

Below is an article by Kevin Miller that appeared in the Christian History Magazine.

When George Whitefield preached his first sermon, at age 21, someone complained to the bishop that Whitefield (pronounced WlT-field) had driven 15 people insane.

Anglican ministers of the day were controlled, dignified, even stuffy in preaching. Whitefield, though, was intense, emotional, and dramatic. “I could hardly bear such unreserved use of tears,” wrote one observer, for Whitefield was “frequently so overcome, that, for a few seconds, you would suspect he never could recover.” Whitefield explained, “You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction?”

In America, Whitefield was a sensation. His impassioned preaching on the “New Birth” in 1739 helped spark what historians have called The Great Awakening. It’s easy to “underestimate the effect of the Awakening on eighteenth-century society,” writes Richard Bushman in The Great Awakening, 1740–1745. “The Awakening was more like the civil-rights demonstrations, the campus disturbances, and the urban riots of the 1960s combined.”

But in colonial America, the social upheaval was caused chiefly by one young British field preacher who considered himself “less than the least of all.” Whitefield traveled from New Hampshire to Georgia (where he founded America’s first charity) and unified the colonies as no one had before. Thousands discovered, as one Connecticut farmer put it, “my righteousness would not save me.”

Bibliography:
Christian History Magazine-Issue 38: George Whitefield: 17th C. Preacher & Revivalist (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1993).

"The Life of Trust" - George Müller (1805–1898)

I came across this article in Christian History Magazine and thought it to be interesting. As a young convert, I often heard quotes from the pulpit on Müller’s incredible trust in the Lord to provide for his needs in ministry. Why it interests me is because, we today trust very little in God and first try to meet our needs in our own strength, ingenuity, and wherewithal, and it’s only when we have totally exhausted our means that we’ll turn to God. My prayer is that the church, God’s people would rekindle this type of faith and trust in a good and great God.

Born in Germany, the son of a tax collector, George Müller lived a wicked life as a youth but was converted at about age 20 at a Moravian mission. He went to England in 1829 to do mission work and eventually became a preacher affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren. He determined to rely totally on the Lord for his financial support. His policy continued even after he started an orphanage in Bristol. Without direct appeals for funds, his orphanage was supported and grew. By the time he died, more than ten thousand orphans had been cared for in his orphanages—his possessions amounted to merely a few hundred dollars’ worth.

The following is excerpted from his journal, The Life of Trust: A Narrative of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller.

I stated to the brethren, at the end of October, 1830, that I should for the future give up having any regular salary. After I had given my reasons for doing so, I read Philippians iv., and told the saints that if they still had a desire to do something towards my support, by voluntary gifts, I had no objections to receive them, though ever so small, either in money or provisions….

About the same time, also, my wife and I had grace given to us to take the Lord’s commandment, “Sell that ye have, and give alms,” Luke xii. 33, literally, and to carry it out. Our staff and support in this matter were Matthew vi. 19–34, John xiv. 13, 14. We leaned on the arm of the Lord Jesus. It is now twenty-five years since we set out in this way, and we do not in the least regret the step we then took. As I have written down how the Lord has been pleased to deal with us since, I shall be able to relate some facts concerning this matter, as far as they may tend to edification.

Nov. 18, 1830. Our money was reduced to about eight shillings. When I was praying with my wife in the morning, the Lord brought to my mind the state of our purse, and I was led to ask him for some money. About four hours after, a sister said to me, “Do you want any money?” “I told the brethren,” said I, “dear sister, when I gave up my salary, that I would for the future tell the Lord only about my wants.” She replied, “But he has told me to give you some money. About a fortnight ago, I asked him what I should do for him, and he told me to give you some money; and last Saturday it came again powerfully to my mind, and has not left me since, and I felt it so forcibly last night that I could not help speaking of it to brother P.” My heart rejoiced, seeing the Lord’s faithfulness, but I thought it better not to tell her about our circumstances, lest she should be influenced to give accordingly; and I also was assured that, if it were of the Lord, she could not but give. I therefore turned the conversation to other subjects, but when I left she gave me two guineas. We were full of joy on account of the goodness of the Lord. I would call upon the reader to admire the gentleness of the Lord, that he did not try our faith much at the commencement, but allowed us to see his willingness to help us, before he was pleased to try it more fully….

I would observe here, by the way, that if any of the children of God should think that such a mode of living leads away from the Lord, and from caring about spiritual things, and has the effect of causing the mind to be taken up with the question, What shall I eat?—What shall I drink?— and Wherewithal shall I be clothed?—I would request him prayerfully to consider the following remarks: 1. I have had experience of both ways, and know that my present mode of living, as to temporal things, is connected with less care. 2. Confidence in the Lord, to whom alone I look for the supply of my temporal wants, keeps me, when a case of distress comes before me, or when the Lord’s work calls for my pecuniary aid, from anxious reckoning like this: Will my salary last out? Shall I have enough myself the next month? etc. In this my freedom, I am, by the grace of God, generally, at least, able to say to myself something like this: My Lord is not limited: he can again supply; he knows that this present case has been sent to me: and thus, this way of living so far from leading to anxiety is rather the means of keeping from it. And truly it was once said to me by an individual,—You can do such and such things and need not to lay by, for the church in the whole of Devonshire cares about your wants. My reply was: The Lord can use not merely any of the saints throughout Devonshire, but those throughout the world, as instruments to supply my temporal wants. 3. This way of living has often been the means of reviving the work of grace in my heart, when I have been getting cold: and it also has been the means of bringing me back again to the Lord, after I have been backsliding. For it will not do,—it is not possible to live in sin, and at the same time, by communion with God, to draw down from heaven everything one needs for the life that now is. 4. Frequently, too, a fresh answer to prayer, obtained in this way, has been the means of quickening my soul, and filling me with much joy.

Bibliography:
Christian History Magazine-Issue 14: Money in Christian History: Part I (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1987).

What About Women as Deacons?

In September, I finished up a series about the doctrine of the church. In my last message, I talked about deacons in the church and even tackled the question on whether or not the church should have deaconesses or woman serving in this leadership role.

In doing so, I looked at both sides of the issue and came up to what I, as a fallible and finite person believes the Scriptures teach in this area. However, I also stated from the start that this is a gray area in Scripture and there are many scholars whom I hold in high esteem, that come down on both sides of this issue. Considering that, I don’t believe it’s prudent to be known as a church that’s calling out other churches for deciding to use women as deaconesses. Furthermore, it has been my experience, that the churches that are so polemic about it, are not themselves using deacons as taught in Scripture. On the other hand, as a church, think it's best to be known for a body of believers that worship and glorify God well. To be known as a church that has a passion for Christ by making disciples of all nations. It's about what really is important and of utmost priority. Especially when you consider that there are 6,426 unreached people groups and another 3,724 unreached/unengaged people groups.

However, it is believed that in making those statements above that I, in a sense, left the door open for women to question and ultimately pursue these positions. In response, I would say that it's not my statements that should be of great concern. The greater alarm and questions are. Where are all the men who meet the qualifications of a deacon? Where are all the men who are willing to be leading servants of the church? Where are all the men who are striving for and have a desire for being leaders in our churches?

By the way, for the record, my theological position is a Complementarian. Complementarianism in contrast to an Egalitarianism, holds the view according to Grudem "that men and women are equal in value before God but that some governing and teaching roles in the church are reserved for men." Thus, men and women are in their essential nature equal, but in many instances, functionally, take subordinate roles. The Trinity is an example of this, where the God head is equal, yet function in different roles. These differences complete or “complement” each other. Because of these differences, there will be some things that women are predisposed to do more than men. Additionally, there will be some things that men are predisposed to do more than women. Therefore, there are ideal roles for both men and women that should be celebrated, exemplified, typified, and promoted in the church, family, and society. To deny these differences is to deny God's design and purpose in His creation.

In addition, I stated in my message that titles are not as important as doing the ministry of the church. In other words, although I don't believe that everyone is called to be an Elder/Pastor, the Scripture clearly states that we are all to be ministers of the Word. Although there are certain qualifications that a pastor/elder must meet, ALL are called in other places in Scripture to have the same character qualities of a pastor.

The same is true for the office of a deacon. Again, although all are not called by the church to be a deacon, we are ALL called to be servants of the church. The same is true in regard to the qualifications of a deacon. Although the Bible states the qualifications of a deacon, we are ALL, in other parts of the Bible required to meet those same character qualities.

In conclusion, I hope this helps clear up any ambiguity about my position on leadership roles of the church. It's also important to know that we are not going to avoid or skip over the more difficult doctrines, questions, and verses that Scripture may raise. We are to men and women who wrestle with God and labor in His Word. I also encourage all of us to be good stewards of the Word and search the Scriptures for themselves, but additionally to receive the word with all readiness (Acts 17:11). In other words, I'm a Complementarian because as I have searched and studied the Scriptures that is what I believe the Word teaches. Although I looked at several different resources in my studies, my conclusion was that based on the text and context of what I studied that the women are not to serve in this leadership role. I would finally submit to you that I don't have all the answers and there are still yet many "holes" in my theology. The only problem with this is I don't know where those holes are yet.

May we all heed what Paul told the young Timothy, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15). And...

"Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine" (1 Tim 5:17.


Bibliography:

Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), 1238.

Grudem, Wayne A. Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood. Foundations for the family series. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2002.

Geisler, Norman L. Systematic Theology, Volume Four: Church, Last Things. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2005.

Worship in John Smyth’s Church

I thought since I just finished a short series on worship that this would be a good article to post. I'm one of those "long winded" preachers, which some folks are not always enthusiastic about getting two sermons in one sitting.

Worship in John Smyth’s church in Amsterdam, c.1611, was described in a letter by Hugh and Anne Bromehead, quoted in H. Wheeler Robinson, Life and Faith of the Baptists, 1946, p. 96.

We begin with a prayer, after read some one of two chapters of the Bible; give the sense thereof and confer upon the same; that done, we lay aside our books and after a solemn prayer made by the first speaker he propoundeth some text out of the Scripture and prophesieth out of the same by the space of one hour or three quarters of an hour. After him standeth up a second speaker and prophesieth out of the said text the like time and space, sometimes more, sometimes less. After him, the third, the fourth, the fifth, etc., as the time will give leave. Then the first speaker concludeth with prayer as he began with prayer, with an exhortation to contribution to the poor, which collection being made is also concluded with prayer. This morning exercise begins at eight of the clock and continueth until twelve of the clock. The like course of exercise is observed in the afternoon from two of the clock unto five or six of the clock. Last of all the execution of the government of the Church is handled.

By the way, John Smyth was the first Englishman (of record) who declared himself dearly in favor of believer’s baptism and organized a church based on the implications of that principle. Smyth, a graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge, made the pilgrimage from Anglican to Puritan through Separatist to a Baptist position. In 1608 Smyth and his Separatist congregation fled to Amsterdam where, with other exiled Englishmen, he began to work out his doctrine of the church.

I would say that we have come a long way since then - and for the most part a long way in a wrong way.

Bibliography:

Christian History Magazine-Issue 6: The Baptists (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1985).