sin

WHO DOES THIS JOB?

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Why & How We Must Pray for Pastors

On occasion, some younger pastor seeking counsel coaxes me out of retirement. Typically, he unpacks a perplexing story about a shepherding challenge. He hopes to gain some wisdom from my thirty-six-year ministry history to help navigate his latest flock mess. After these heavy-lifting soul-care conversations, I sometimes lighten the mood a bit jesting with this question: Who does this job anyway?

Over the decades of my sometimes wood-hay-stubble, other times gold-silver-precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12) pastoral stewardship, some realities about my seemingly impossible task crystallized sooner than others.  Perhaps most importantly? Undershepherds desperately need their sheep’s ongoing prayers for the Chief Shepherd’s (1Peter 5:4) help. Why else would the apostle Paul close one epistle so succinctly, “Brethren, pray for us” (1Thess. 5:25) and entreat the same more specifically in a second to the same church (2 Thess. 3:1-2)? He appealed to another assembly to strive together with him in their prayers (Rom. 15:30). He pleaded yet again elsewhere, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Cor. 1:11). Look here for more of the same (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-3). Another writer urged his readers to pray more earnestly for him (Heb. 13:18-19). Our pastors need our prayers; the Bible tells us so.

Retirement brings all kinds of reflection about one’s vocational past. I’ve pondered often lately about the whys and hows to pray for my pastors. This pastor-turned-sheep remembers the challenges. He knows the need for tons of prayer support. I’ve landed on some whys that inform various hows in supporting your local shepherds with strategic intercession. In this post I want to emphasize just one.

Pastors Are Beset with Inestimable Weakness

At times the Holy Spirit brings my devotional Bible reading to a full stop over a particular passage. That happened recently with Hebrews 5:1-2.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness (emphasis added).

Weakness. Let that word sink in. The frailty to which all human flesh is heir, as one lexicon puts it. Frailty—like ignorance and waywardness—among countless other weights and close-clinging sins (Heb. 12:1) passed down from Adam. Now, let another word sink in. Beset. That’s how the ESV translates a compound of two Greek words—around/to place, i.e., surrounded. Like Paul’s chains fettered [same word] him about in prison (Acts 28:20), new covenant pastors drag around with them the same restraints of remaining sin that encumbered their old covenant counterparts. Just like their sheep, pastors stumble in many ways. Consequently, they await a stricter evaluation at the final judgment given their influential teaching stewardship (James 3:1-2).  

Like it or not, though above reproach in character as required (1 Tim. 3:2), your pastor still sins like you and I do (Ecc. 7:20). Sometimes he even sins against you! If he’s at all like I have been and still am, he will battle off and on with things like pride, anxiety, insecurity, comparison, anger, immoderate appetites, fear, entitlement, resentment, selfishness, covetousness, self-reliance, demandingness, and a host of other deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). So, you must pray for him, let alone deal gently with him as he does with your ignorant/wayward-tending self.

Specific ways to pray for your beset-with-weakness pastor will have to wait for my next post. In the meantime, please be mindful of this candid testimony of the self-confessed chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), Paul the apostle, in Romans 7:

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Sufficient for now and always may we pray for our pastors in light of Paul’s answer to his own cry in v. 25: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Pray that your pastor runs his race relentlessly fixing his eyes, not on his sins, but on the One who kept the law perfectly in his stead and paid the price for his every weakness with precious blood spilt at Calvary (Heb. 12:1-2).

You’ll be the better-off sheep for doing so.

WHEN LOSSES MOUNT

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A Promise of Comfort for a Year of Woes

Anyone else wishing for a reboot to 2020? If only it were possible.

First there was COVID-19, its interminable lockdown, and challenges over church reopening.

Then came a notice from Baker Publishing: your book is going out of print due to lack of demand. I had hoped for more; what author doesn’t?

Next up from my ENT doc. “You’ve got three issues with your vocal chords. You need meds, therapy, perhaps surgery.”

Lately, I experience along with the rest of the nation the crisis over George Floyd’s killing and other incidents like it. Once again we confront the ugliness of racism and a church/country often divided as to how to foster change.

All of the above are hard, but none more personal than Dad reporting most recently, “Mom’s Alzheimer’s has turned for the worse: she is bed-ridden, has no appetite, and she is sleeping a lot.” Enter hospice for a third time in my life-is-a-vapor journey.

There is more, but to share further would violate confidences.

And this with only half the year gone! Sometimes it feels so overwhelming.

Where to find comfort?

I’ve been meditating some on the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew 5. Last week I paused over the second of these wisdom pearls for kingdom happiness: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (5:3).

That morning I pulled from my library Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and devoured chapter five about this truth with a promise.

Like the first, poor in spirit (5:2), this too is entirely spiritual in its meaning. Linking them both he writes:

We have to be poor in spirit before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. Negative before positive. . . . [Likewise] a real sense of sin must come before there can be a true joy of salvation. Now that is the whole essence of the gospel.

MLJ cites two examples of this kind of mourning.

He begins with Jesus–the man of sorrows acquainted with grief–who burst into tears at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35) and wept over Jerusalem destined for destruction (Luke 19:41-44). This was, of course, not for any sin on his part, but for the grief felt so deeply over the consequences of sin in the world.

Then he points to the the apostle Paul’s testimony in Romans 7, so grief-stricken in agony that he cries out “Wretched man that I am!” and “In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing.” Paul grieved mightily over the impact of sin in his own experience.

Lloyd-Jones insists we must likewise see our utter helplessness and hopelessness when confronted with God and His holiness. “I must mourn about the fact that I am like that.”

But we must not stop there. We must mourn because of the sins of others as well.

The man who is truly a Christian . . . is concerned about the state of society . . . and as he reads his newspaper he does not stop at what he sees or simply express disgust at it. He mourns because of it, because men can so spend their life in this world. . . . He knows that it is all due to sin; and he mourns because of it.

We will never get to the comfort Jesus promises, if we suffer from a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin.

There is much afflicting our world today that thus far feels way above my paygrade for posting solutions and positions. Perhaps some of that will come after much more praying, listening, and reflecting.

But for now, it is enough to feel the crushing weight of sin so manifest in viruses, injustices, killings, diseases, riots, and more.

The promise of comfort leading to a serious, multi-faceted joy will have to wait for the next post. It can’t come soon enough, but there is no bypassing the mourning to get to the comfort.

Chronic Pain & Deeper Healing

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I dealt with considerable pain from my tongue cancer and its treatment back in 2005. But it doesn’t compare with my experience these days enduring a pathological fracture of the jaw. Pain which never lets up brings a whole new series of challenges to redeeming suffering as a follower of Jesus.

Knowing I would have hours of windshield time to and from Miami last week for the consult with the surgeon there, I did a search online the day before I left. I wanted to download some resources/messages on the subject of pain. The Lord reminded me of Joni Eareckson Tada along the way. If anyone would have words of wisdom about dealing with chronic pain, she most certainly would. I had no idea just how right that impression from the Lord would prove to be.

Of the half-a-dozen or so talks to which I listened on the road last Monday and Tuesday, this one struck home with the most Holy Spirit force. Nancy and I just finished watching it together prior to my writing this post. Whether your story involves protracted suffering or not, I cannot commend more strongly this teaching from a woman who testifies authentically with the poet, “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees” (Psalm 119:71, NLT).

Please, I plead with you, do your soul a mega-good. As soon as you possibly can, invest the mere thirty minutes it will take to view Joni’s message. My prayer is that every one of our covenant members at Orlando Grace would do so. Beyond that, of course, all the better.

Envy’s Everywhere

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envy

I can think of a lot of sins of the flesh which seem more prevalent in the body of Christ than the green monster. Perhaps that has something to do with its capacity, more than some, to fly under the radar in our churches. Other faults tend to rear their ugly heads publicly; envy hunts its victims within the private recesses of their concealed hearts. Not to God, of course.

Alexander Strauch continues to challenge me with his book Leading with Love. He treats First Corinthians 13, the so-called love chapter, through the lens of a Christian leader. I keep coming back to this read. It sobers me about how far I have to go in terms of shepherding God’s people from a heart of love. It doesn’t take more than the third characteristic of love, framed negatively, to go after this sneaky thing, “Love does not envy.”

Strauch admonishes:

We need to be aware that envy is a prevalent sin among the Lord’s people and Christian leaders. Pastors can go to bizarre leading with loveextremes to eliminate from the church gifted people who threaten them [not this pastor]. Churches can envy other churches that are larger or are growing rapidly [not OGC]. Missionaries can envy other missionaries who are more fruitful or better supported [not my missionaries]. Bible study leaders can envy more popular Bible study leaders [not my community group leaders]; singers can envy other singers who sing more often or receive louder applause [not my worship team]; elders can envy fellow elders who shine brighter in leadership ability and knowledge [not my elders]; and deacons can envy fellow deacons who serve more effectively or are sought out for help more frequently [not my deacons] (p. 50).

Can anybody spell “Denial’s not just a river in Egypt?” At least about the “not this pastor” protest.

So what’s the antidote? Adopt the spirit of John the Baptist who pleaded this when Jesus’ popularity outstripped his own and envy hunted his soul:

“A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:27-30 ESV)

I’ve got what I’ve got because Jesus gave it to me. If someone has more in my often distorted opinion, so be it. May He increase and I decrease. No better cure for envy than that.

The Grand Canyon of the Gospel

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Have you ever visited the Grand Canyon? I have. Twice. The view from every vantage point takes one’s breath away.

As stunning as that vista is, it doesn’t compare to the scene of God’s love on display in the gospel of Christ. Greg Gilbert capitalizes on that illustration in his book What Is the Gospel?

How long has it been since you looked up from the earthly details of life and came face to face with the Grand Canyon of what God has done for us in the gospel—his unfathomable grace in forgiving people who have rebelled against him, his breathtaking plan to send his Son to suffer and die in their place, to establish the throne of the resurrected Jesus over a kingdom of perfect righteousness, and to bring those who are saved and redeemed by his blood into a new heavens and new earth where sin and evil will be forever conquered!

How is it that I let the beauty and power and vastness of that gospel be crowded out of my mind so often and for so long? Why is it that my thoughts and emotions are often dominated by silly things like whether my car is clean, or what’s happening on CNN right now, or whether I was happy with my lunch today, rather than by these glorious truths? Why do I so often organize and think about my life as if I were wearing blinders, rather than in the light of eternity? Why does this gospel not permeate, all the time and all the way to the bottom, my relationships with my wife and children, my coworkers and friends and fellow church members?

I know exactly why. It’s because I’m a sinner, and worldliness will continue to linger in my heart and war against me until the day Jesus comes back. But until then, I want to fight against that. I want to fight against spiritual laziness—against the drugged stupor this world constantly threatens to put me in—and I want to embrace this gospel hard and let it affect everything—my actions, affections, emotions, desires, thoughts, and will (p. 114-15).

Content likes that makes me eager to sit under Greg’s teaching this Friday night and Saturday morning in our Living in the Grip of the Gospel Conference at OGC. Oh for a people who embrace the gospel hard and let it effect everything!

By the Grace of God I Am What I Am

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One of the great liberating texts of Scripture in my life comes from 1 Corinthians 15:10.

By the grace of God I am what I am.

In spite of Paul’s horrific resume as a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent (1 Tim. 1:13), he counted himself among those who witnessed the resurrected Christ first-hand and became the hardest working apostle of all. And he attributed it all to grace and nothing but grace.

John Bunyan, author of the classic Pilgrim’s Progress, offered this response on an occasion of hearing this verse of divine writ:

I am not what I ought to be. Ah, how imperfect and deficient!

I am not what I wish to be. I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good!

I am not what I hope to be. Soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection.

Yet, though I am not what I ought to be,
nor what I wish to be,
nor what I hope to be,
I can truly say, I am not what I once was;
a slave to sin and Satan;
and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge,
‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’

Though none of us is what we ought, wish, or hope to be, and won’t be until we reach glory, truth is we aren’t what we once were.

May we heartily join with the apostle and declare, By the grace of God I am what I am.

When Sinners Say I Do – March 10th!

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A proper understanding of God’s purpose in marriage, the problem in marriage, and discovering the power of the gospel in marriage is vital to everyone whether single, preparing to be married, newly married or married for decades.

Our friends at Crosspointe Orlando are hosting Pastor Dave Harvey, author of When Sinners Say I Do, in a day long seminar on understanding God’s plan for marriage, EVERYONE’S problem in marriage and how discovering the POWER of the gospel will result in a thriving marriage. Click here to register.

I want to convince you that dealing with the sin problem is key to a thriving marriage. When we apply the gospel to our sin, it gives us hope in our personal lives and in our marriages. Bad news leads to great news. It’s the story of the Bible, and the story of our lives. -Dave Harvey, When Sinners Say I Do

This is the text I am now using for premarital counseling and marital distress counseling. If there is any way you can make your way to fit this into your schedule, I highly recommend it!

Childcare

Email laila@xpointe.com if you need childcare (include how many and age of children). Note there will be an additional fee for childcare.

More information about When Sinners Say I Do

The Fountain of a Thriving Marriage

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I shared this quote from Dave Harvey’s terrific book When Sinners Say “I Do” a couple of weeks ago in one of my messages.

It packs such a punch that I decided to feature it today in my blog post.

The gospel is the heart of the Bible. Everything in Scripture is either preparation for the gospel, presentation of the gospel, or participation in the gospel. In the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, the gospel provides an ultimate solution for our sin—for today, for tomorrow, for the day we stand before God, and forever.

There really is no end to the glories of the gospel, which is why we will spend eternity marveling that the Holy God would choose to crush his only Son for the sake of sinful man. The gospel explains our most obvious and basic problem—sin has separated us from God and from each other. Thus we are objects of God’s wrath. A Christian understands the necessity of the cross; our sin was so bad that it required blood, the blood of God, to take it away! Without the cross we are at war with God, and he is at war with us.

The gospel is therefore central to all theological truth, and is the overarching reality that makes sense of all reality. Never make the mistake of thinking that the gospel is only good for evangelism and conversion. By the gospel we understand that, although saved, we remain sinners. Through the gospel we receive power to resist sin. Accurately understanding and continually applying the gospel is the Christian life.

This also means that the gospel is an endless fountain of God’s grace in your marriage. To become a good theologian and to be able to look forward to a lifelong, thriving marriage, you must have a clear understanding of the gospel. Without it, you cannot see God, yourself, or your marriage for what they truly are.

The gospel is the fountain of a thriving marriage (pp. 24-25).

If you plan to get married or already are married, I wholeheartedly recommend this resource.

The Grace of Exhorting

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Yesterday’s message in Hebrews 3:1-14 is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.

As promised, here are my bullet points on the qualities of the godly exhorter and exhorted:

Seven Qualities of a Godly Exhorter

First, gripped by biblical necessity.

Prov. 27:5 – Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Proverbs 28:23 – Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.

Second, committed to relational proximity.

Prov. 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Third, known for spiritual dependability.

Prov. 17:17 – A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Prov. 27:6 – Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Fourth, strengthened through vertical security.

Prov. 29:25 – The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.

Fifth, clothed with personal humility.

Prov. 11:2 – When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Gal. 6:1 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Sixth, aware of situational sensitivity.

Prov.15:4 – A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Prov. 20:5 – The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Seventh, anchored in gospel reality.

Prov. 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

The Singular Quality of the Godly Exhorted

Committed to favorable receptivity.

Prov. 9:8-9 – Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Prov. 12:1 – Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Prov. 13:18 – Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.

Prov. 15:5 – A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Prov. 15:31 – The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.

Here is the video about the persecuted church that we tried to play at the beginning of the message: