My Reasons For Being a Pastor Involved with Students

Me & Kaleb in Philly @Fuge w/ a Youth Group from the Pittsburgh area

I never had a youth group. I did not go to church during those years. I may have attended one lock-in at a church. That was it. I was too busy living for the approval of my peers and working to blend into the cool crowd. I was regularly involved in things that were against the law, damaging to myself and others, and rebellious against God. I do not glorify those days. I look back with disgust at my conforming, go-with-the-crowd, ignorant self.

I recently had a guy remind me of who I was during those years. He reached out to me via Facebook. He was on my high-school baseball team. He was a freshmen my senior year. He reminded me that I used to pick on him and his friend for being "Bible thumpers." Yep, that was your boy, right here. The preacher who used to make fun of people who went to youth group.

But God...

Ah, I love those words. If it wasn't for "But God" I would be doomed. Without those words there is no telling where my life would be at this moment. God rescued me. God saved me from my folly. What was once boring and unappealing to me, was now insatiably interesting. What was once considered a set of chains and shackles to keep me from doing what I wanted, was now realized to be the very path of liberation. I was already chained, I just thought I was free. Christ gave me real freedom.

When I look back at teenage Erik, I want to slap his pimply face and challenge his worldview and actions. I want to show him that his choices matter and shape the future he will live tomorrow. I cannot go back to teenage Erik; however, I have a church full of teenagers, and soon-to-be teenagers all around me. This is why I am committing myself to investing in students.

I'm Diving In

For the last three summers, I have preached to thousands and thousands of students at Fuge Camps. I have been reminded over and over again that students are not "kids," though that is how they are often treated. They can handle the meat and potatoes of the gospel, if we are willing to walk with them. However, most of the time, they are treated like older versions of our preschool kids. We give them a few stories about some Bible characters, we connect a moral lesson to it, play a game, give out cookies and juice, and call it ministry. This will not suffice.

Students are facing tough challenges. They are making real choices. They are forming a worldview and determining career paths. In addition to values and their future direction, they are making moral choices. They are faced with getting drunk, smoking pot, doing LSD, stealing from stores, cheating on tests, sleeping with their boyfriend/girlfriend, watching porn, and on it goes. These are vital choices. These decisions have real consequences. I have watched as many of my teenage friends have continued to struggle in life today due to choices they made in junior and senior high. I want to be involved in helping students work through these issues.

Many Churches Are Failing

Many churches would claim that they are already helping students deal with these issues, and that may certainly be true. But that is not always the case. A recent article in The Atlantic had an article by Larry Taunton on the profile of many college atheists. To the surprise of many, most of these college atheists revealed that they grew up in church. They attended youth groups. A common theme was that these student ministries gave trite answers to their difficult questions. They focused more on entertainment than dealing with the real issues students face. The Bible was secondary.

This does not mean having fun is wrong. It does mean entertainment will not transform anyone. You cannot base a student ministry on having fun. They need to be shown the life-changing truths of Scripture and be shown a glorious picture of God. Many churches are failing to do this, which is why we have a lot of teenagers in youth groups, but not a lot of students sold out for Christ.

TJC Student Ministry

I have been meeting with several of the existing student volunteers we have at The Journey and talking with them about student ministry. We have discussed doing everything we can to pour into students and ground them in the gospel. We are implementing a strategic plan for ministering to students. It has me excited. As a pastor, I do not have tons of extra time to spare. I am certainly not jumping into student ministry because I am bored. Rather, I am completely convinced that I, the pastor, must be involved in this ministry. This is not because I am the expert, but as the pastor, I set the tone of the church's culture. Additionally, I want to be involved in shaping the next generation of Christian pastors, nurses, teachers, police-officers, and college students. I want them to have a big, glorious, God-exalting view of the world.

I believe it can happen through a vibrant student ministry.

I want to be involved in seeing it realized.

Let me hear from you: why do you think student ministry is often marginalized to entertainment? What was your experience or non-experience with student ministry as a teenager?

Check out our TJC Student Ministry page & BLOG

New Beginnings

I woke up this morning with a sense of newness. I feel it is a day of new beginnings.

I got home on Saturday night after two weeks in Philadelphia. I had the privilege this summer to speak at Ridgecrest, NC, New Orleans, LA, Panama City Beach, FL, and Philadelphia, PA. During these six weeks of student camps, I have spoken to several thousand students from across the entire country. I consider it a special privilege to have that opportunity. When I woke up this morning, with nowhere to travel, I finally realized the finality of camp for the summer. It gave me a sense of newness. A new chapter and season for the year is beginning. 

Then yesterday at church, we had an all-day going away party for  Robbie and Tiffany Cheuvront. Robbie has been our worship leader since the Journey started eights years ago. He has been there through every up and down. He will always be a dear friend. He preached at the morning services, then we had a praise and worship night in the evening. Saying it was a great night is an understatement. We all sang praises to God, with gratitude in our hearts. We spoke a lot of words about our love for Robbie and the Cheuvront family. Those words cannot capture the actual sentiments. When I woke up this morning, realizing Robbie was not going to be leading worship this Sunday, I felt a sense of newness. I am sad, but today feels like a new beginning, a new chapter. 

This got my mind thinking about new chapters in our lives. We all have those seasons of change. It may be a new job, a new child, a new home, or some other change. There are two major things that I think are important to remember during these new beginnings:

1. Give thanks to God for the previous season. 

Take time to take inventory of the way God has blessed your previous season or chapter of life. Sit down and reflect on the different experiences that the chapter brought into your life. Before simply moving to the next season of life, it is helpful to contemplate the previous season. 

2. Anticipate what God has coming.

New seasons can be scary because there are a lot of unknowns. However, we must trust that God is in control of those new seasons, just as He was the previous ones. We need to anticipate what God is going to do in the new chapters of our lives.

Things do not stay the same. Things change. It is not always a fun experience, but it is a certain reality. Rather than resisting change, we should be grateful for the seasons. These are the chapters that make up the story of our lives. 

Ignorance Is Not A Redeemer

As a pastor of a church and occasional speaker at other events, I come across a common question regarding the fate of those who never hear of or accept Christ. It goes something like this: "Will God punish people in hell who have never heard of Jesus?" or another version of it is, "Will God send people to hell from other religions who were just ignorant about Jesus being the only way?" 

Many do not believe that people apart from Christ will spend eternity in hell. One of the reasons for their doubt is an appeal to sentimental feelings. We live in a culture that is slow to criticize or punish anyone. Children are often warned over and over again of potential punishments if they do not reform their behavior, yet they rarely do, and parents who follow through with their warnings is even rarer. Criminals are often relieved of jail sentences long before they have served the time they were sentenced. There is even a movement of people who want to get rid of jails and move toward rehabilitation therapy. The culture has grown less convinced of justice for law-breakers and rebels.

There is another reason for the belief that people apart from Christ will not spend eternity in hell. This second reason runs deep into the fabric of our misunderstanding of God's justice and our sinful condition. It is not a misunderstanding relegated only to those outside the church, but this idea is growing inside of churches. The idea: God would be unjust to punish people who have never heard of Jesus. Nobody likes the idea of God being unjust or cruel, so a growing theology is developing that denies the claim that only faith in Jesus saves us from sin and hell. 

So how do we answer the question?

There are two premises that need be firmly established before answering the question:

1. Nobody is innocent or without sin. 

There is no such thing as neutral people. We have all sinned against God (Romans 3:23). No one is good, not even one (Romans 3:10). Every person has a record of sin against God. This includes the person who grew up in home with a massive family Bible on the coffee table, to the young girl whose daddy was a preacher, to the old man who has only lived in Muslim-saturated environment, to the man in the dense jungle that has never been exposed to civilization or the Bible. None of these people are without sin. 

Some people would argue, "yeah, but the guy in the Muslim country or the guy in the jungle may not have ever heard about Jesus or had a copy of the Bible." However, Paul addresses this very argument in Romans 1 and 2 when he repeatedly makes clear that both the created universe and the moral law written on man's heart, serve to reveal God to man. Man both knows that there is a God, and that He is just and morally righteous. He knows this because God's law is written on his heart (Romans 2:15). Paul warns his readers that these people who never had the Word of God or never grew up hearing the teaches about God, are without excuse. Nobody is innocent. All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). I will demonstrate in a moment why this is such a vital premise to understand.

2. Only the blood of Jesus redeems us. 

The blood of Christ is mentioned three times more than the cross of cross, and five times more than the death of Christ in the New Testament (see Blood Work by Anthony Carter). The teaching of Scripture is that Jesus and his finished work on the cross is our only redemption. Nobody can have their record of debt cleared without a substitute, and there is only one substitute available - Jesus. The blood of bulls, sheep, or goats is no longer sufficient for our sin. God sent forth His Son to be our exclusive redeemer and to atone for our sin with his blood (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Romans 5:8-9; 1 John 4:10; Ephesians 2:13; Revelation 1:5).

Jesus addressed this issue. In John 14:6 Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." These words are clear. There is no room for debate. If Jesus is indeed who he claimed to be (which the resurrection attests to), then this claim slams the door shut on any questions. Only through Jesus can anyone approach God. Only Jesus and his shed blood for sin, can redeem us.

Conversation

So how do we answer the person who questions whether God will punish those who were ignorant of Christ for all of eternity? Here is usually how my conversation goes:

Person: "When you say that only Jesus can redeem us, are you saying that people who never hear about Jesus will go to hell?" 

Me: "Yes."

Person: "Don't you think that it is unfair that God is sending people to hell who didn't know?"

Me: "No, because I do not believe that God sends people to hell for their ignorance."

Person: "But I thought you just said He did?"

Me: "No, God does not send anyone to hell for their ignorance. It is not about whether a person has heard of Jesus or not that determines if they are going to hell. The reason people go to hell is because they have sinned against God. That is why they are condemned."

Person: "But how would they know they have sinned against God if they don't have the Bible or haven't heard preaching of the gospel?"

Me: "Because the Bible teaches us, Romans 1 & 2 specifically, that everyone knows that there is a God and they know His moral law because it is written on their hearts. Paul says that they are without excuse when they stand before God. First, because they knew there was a God and didn't honor Him as such, but suppressed the truth. Second, they knew right from wrong, but continue to willingly do wrong. So they have willfully sinned against God, who has revealed both Himself and His law to them, and they have rejected Him." [THIS IS PREMISE #1]

Person: "Hmmm."

Me: "Let's imagine a scenario. Pretend you were driving through a town and you failed to notice the speed limit. Let's pretend that you were driving 20 mph over the speed limit and got pulled over. The officer gives you a ticket and a court date. You think to yourself, "I will tell the judge that I didn't know the speed limit." You go to court on your date and see the judge. You plead ignorance of the law, but he tells you that the speed is posted and that you should have known based on your surroundings that you were going way to fast. He finds you guilty and makes you pay the fine. Has the judge been unfair to you? The answer is clearly, "no." He has not been unfair. He has upheld the law. Your ignorance was not a way out. The law is the law. You are not declared guilty because you failed to see the sign. You are declared guilty because you broke the law and went over the speed limit. Does that make sense?

Person: "Yeah, it does."

Me: "Okay, let me give you one more scenario to wrap up. Let's pretend you have committed murder. There is another case just before yours. This person has also committed murder. However, this individual has a lawyer that has worked out a deal with the judge. He has committed to serve the sentence of his client. His client is guilty, but the lawyer is going to pay the debt owed for him. The judge slams the gavel, and the man walks out of the courtroom free. Now it is your turn to stand up in front of the judge. You are guilty and you are now standing before the judge. The judge declares you guilty and sentences you to life in prison. You are outraged and say, "But the man before me was guilty and he went free. Why do I have to go to prison?" The judge says to you, "That man had a substitute take his place." You say to the judge, "But I did not know you could get a substitute, this is not fair." The judge then looks at you and says, "Friend, you are getting exactly what you deserve. You may not have known about the substitute, but that does not mean you are innocent. Your ignorance of a Savior does not exonerate you from your crime." In this scenario, the judge has been just. Nobody would accuse him of injustice. Does this help you understand? Christ is offered as a gift for sinners; he is a substitute. But those who are ignorant of Christ are not somehow declared innocent. They are far from that." [THIS IS PREMISE #2]

Person: "Thanks, that makes sense."

Me: "You're welcome. Now you see why we must go with urgency to make disciples of all nations. We have great news to proclaim. This news is not the basis of their condemnation, it is the pathway to freedom from the condemnation in which they are already standing. So let's get busy"

Conclusion

Ignorance is not a redeemer. There is only one Redeemer of our sins, that is Jesus Christ, and his shed blood on the cross. Avoid temptations to get sucked into poor reasoning and false teaching because of sentimental arguments. We must be solid in the Bible's teachings on these issues and not let our culture lead us astray into wrong thinking. Jesus Christ is the exclusive Savior of men. Flee to him, and warn others to do the same.

10 Preaching Tips (Part II)

This is the second half of my two-part post on 10 Preaching Tips (part I here).

 6. Recognize Preaching as Spiritual Warfare

This is a point that I did not grasp or understand when I started preaching. We often prepare our messages in a bubble. We think about how good our content is going to be; we think about how if people would only listen, understand, and apply it, their lives would be great. But there is one issue: we have an enemy. We have a real enemy. He labors against our efforts. Do not think Satan is inactive when we are preaching. Do not think Satan sits idly by while you prepare your sermons. Preaching is an act of spiritual warfare. 

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells and explains the story of the sower. In the story Jesus highlights some seed that has been thrown on to the ground. The seed represents the Word of God. However, there are enemies to this seed taking root and growing and producing fruit. There are the trials and tribulations of this world that threaten to choke the life out of the seed. But Jesus mentions another enemy - the devil. The evil one comes and snatches the seed that has been planted (13:19). Satan wants to actively snatch seeds of the Word off the path as we are throwing them down. You are not simply exchanging ideas with people when you preach, you are engaged in a war. This battle we are in is not flesh and blood, it is spiritual in nature, and we have an enemy (Ephesians 6:12).

7. Avoid Adding Too Much Content

One of the temptations of every preacher is adding too much content. Too much information can be bad. We can leave our congregations and hearers confused, overwhelmed, or lost in a sea of content. This does not mean we should "theology-light" or shy away from digging deep; however, it means that we do not have to throw everything we know about a subject into one sermon. Take for example this post. I could list more than ten tips for preaching. There are countless things that could be said about preaching (some of you have probably thought of them as you have read this). But I kept the post to ten tips. I also broke the ten tips into two posts, instead of one big post with all ten tips listed. Do not overwhelm those who are listening to you preach or teach with so much content that all of it is lost. 

8. Balance Your Exegesis & Application

This has been and will always be, a constant point of emphasis for me. When I started preaching, I was application heavy. I would read a passage, skim over the surface of it with my explanation, and then move to the "so what" factor. But the more I learned about the Bible and theology, I went the opposite direction. The more knowledge I acquired about theology, the less application I gave my hearers. This is a dangerous seesaw. 

The healthiest approach to preaching is a balance of Scripture exegesis and interpretation, with pointed application for the hearers. Yes, we must dig into the text, and highlight crucial doctrinal issues that emerge, but we also must show people how this touches their lives. We cannot only talk about what the Bible says, we must show people how to incorporate it into their families, workplaces, thought-life, and the rest of their lives. Always check your sermons when you finish preparing them for healthy balance. 

9. Marinate Your Sermon, Don't Microwave It

This tip comes with two applications attached. The first, we need to prepare messages with time in between preaching them, that we can digest what we plan to say. Preparing a message on the weekend you are to deliver it is not wise. You may get away with doing that a few times, but if this becomes a habitual pattern, it will reflect in your preaching. Everything is better marinated and cooked slowly. I would rather have a pork tenderloin that has been marinated in a crock-pot all day, than a microwave dinner cooked in one minute and thirty seconds. The meals your congregation needs to be fed and healthy, are the ones you have been marinating for more than a few days, not microwaved. 

The second application of this tip: we need to marinate our messages in prayer. The is a neglected part of sermon preparation. We should be prayerful every step of the process. Sermon preparation should be filled with prayer. Thinking through application, working through the text, and preparing to deliver the message should all be bathed in prayer. As you are actually preaching, inward prayer groanings should be an accompaniment to your sermon. Marinate your sermon, don't microwave it.

10. Expect Some People To Dislike Your Message

Not everyone is going to be a fan of your messages. This is not easy for us to accept. One reason is that a sermon becomes like our child. We have nurtured, cared for, and labored over that message. We do not want anyone telling us our baby is ugly. However, we must understand the nature of our message causes many to turn away. The cross can be a stumbling block. The cross is foolish for some people. There are many professing believers who struggle with worldliness. Do not be surprised when you offend people with a call to repentance or holiness. People do not like having their sin pointed out, even when you are pleading with them to flee to the Savior. 

George Whitefield is one of my heroes of the faith. I love reading his sermons, and about his life. Whitefield is widely considered as one of the most gifted and anointed preachers to ever live. He had incredible ministry success. However, this gifted and anointed man had detractors. There were actually times when he preached where people hit him with rocks, mud, and even human feces. If you have not experienced that in any of your sermons, then you face less resistance than Whitefield. As preachers, we need to develop thicker skin. We often develop hard hearts instead of thick skin. We do not appreciate people disliking or questioning our messages. Friends, we must prepare our messages and deliver them knowing not everyone will love them. This puts us in good company, because not everyone loved Jesus' sermons.

This concludes the tips. These 10 Preaching Tips are not exhaustive. There are many more helpful things that could be said about preaching. I hope my list can be profitable for you and your growth as a communicator of God's Word. May we never forget, that we are proclaimers of the excellencies of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9). We have the greatest message in all the world. Let's work hard to sharpen our skills, and pray for God's power to rest upon us as we teach the Scriptures. 

10 Preaching Tips (Part I)

I love preaching. There is nothing else in all the world I would rather do with my life than preach Christ crucified and resurrected. I consider myself a student of preaching. I am always seeking to learn and get better at this high calling. If you are reading this, you probably feel this way too. I also believe I have a stewardship to train and help other preachers. This is not because I am the expert on preaching, rather I feel a responsibility to share any knowledge I have acquired to help others.

At my church, The Journey Church, we take training preachers serious. We raise up preachers from within our congregation and give them opportunities to actually do it. We have preaching seminars where we train them and give them chances to practice. We also give these men chances on Sunday mornings and Wednesday night services. Our church is only seven and half years old, but we have raised up and trained 24 different men in our church to preach. In those seven and half years, we have only had one person from outside the church come and preach. We highly value training up men in this way.

I want to share 10 Preaching Tips that I have learned along the way, either from experience or from others. They are not in any particular order, nor are they exhaustive. I hope these tips can help you as you labor to proclaim the excellencies of Christ (1 Peter 2:9) in whatever setting he has you. This post is Part I, Part II is here.

1. Pose a Problem and Offer a Solution

Preaching is ultimately about offering a solution to a problem. Proclaiming the good news comes on the heels of sharing the bad news. For example, if your doctor came in the room and said, "Congratulations, I have the injection you need right here. You are going to be just fine." You would probably be caught off guard, a little confused, and questioning why you needed this injection. However, if the doctor would have come and shared with you that you have a serious illness, and if untreated it would lead to your death, then he told you he had the injection you needed, that would be good news.

It is vital when preparing sermons, whether we begin from a text or a topic, we need to answer the question: what problem does this raise in the lives of the people I will be preaching to? I need to show them that they have a very real and serious problem facing them, but praise be to God, my sermon, and (most importantly) the truths contained in it, hold the solutions for that problem. Introducing a problem that everyone faces on the front end of a sermon also serves to catch people's attention. It tells them why they need to be paying attention to what you are about to say. Peter's sermon in Acts 2 demonstrates this approach very well. The people were cut to the heart, asking, "what shall we do?" Peter then gives them the solution (Acts 2:37-38).

2. Anchor Yourself to a Text

Regardless of whether you are teaching through books of the Bible or doing topical series, it is crucial that every sermon be anchored to a text. I understand there may be sermons that bounce around to different passages of Scripture throughout its entirety, but that should not be the norm. A good sermon will be anchored to a text of Scripture.

Why? First, because if Scripture is not central in your preaching, you should reconsider your definition of preaching. We are proclaimers of the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Jesus prayed that the Father would "sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. (John 17:17)." It is the God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) Scriptures that transform people's dead hearts and make them alive. We should stand on Scripture in our sermons. The second reason to do this, is that having a central text keeps you in between the guardrails while you preach. A text can keep you on track and keep you from getting into the ditch with rabbit-trails and wandering off-topic.

3. Resist the Temptation of Preaching for Approval

I have been preaching for almost ten years and I still have this temptation. It happens very subtly. You find it sometimes in your sermon preparation time. You will be working through ideas and writing your sermon or jotting down notes, and without realizing it, you are thinking about whether people are going to agree with you. "Will they like this?," or perhaps even more subtle, "Will they like me if I say this?," begins to creep into your mind. It can also happen as you are preaching. You start judging people's facial expressions and body language and start trying to appease them, rather than envisioning God's posture to your message.

I recently found out from some friends that a sermon I had preached had offended a few people and they were mad. Their accusation against me was off-base and showed they had not listened to what I actually said. However, I still found myself battling internally over not winning the approval of these people. I knew my message was honoring to God. I knew I could test everything I had spoken against Scripture, yet I was wrestling inside over people not agreeing with me. (Tip #10 will deal more with this)

We must keep in mind that the temptation to preach for approval is not just avoiding saying offensive things so that people will continue to like us. It is not only about preaching in a way that people don't get mad. We also fight the temptation of preaching so that people will think we are really something special. You are preaching for approval when you are subtly thinking, "how many people will tweet this quote?" or "how smart or profound do I sound when I make this statement?" Oh friends, the temptations to preach for approval lie in wait around every corner. May we resolve to preach with a heart to please God.

4. Keep the Cross & Resurrection of Christ in View

In our preaching seminar we teach the guys that if any good Jew, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, or Muslim can say "Amen" to your sermon then you did not press the cross and resurrection of Christ to the forefront well enough. It does not matter what text or topic we are dealing with, we must do as Spurgeon said, "make a beeline to the cross." One of the greatest dangers we face in a sermon is to stand and make a lot of great points about life, truth, and any number of things, but never get to the good news of Christ.

We are not self-help counselors. We are heralds for the King. We have an announcement to make to the world from the King of Kings. That message: "Jesus Christ is Lord; he died in our place and rose from the grave. Salvation is in him alone. Repent and believe the good news." When doing sermon preparation, keep asking yourself the question, "Am I establishing the necessity of trusting the finished work of Jesus, through his death and resurrection?" If your sermon does not need to hit on those points,  you need to throw away your sermon.

5. Preach with Heightened Affections

The preaching and teaching that inspires me the most is affection-driven preaching. When I can smell that a guy loves the Lord and loves proclaiming the gospel, I love his kind of preaching. We are preaching the most glorious truths in all the universe. How could we ever preach them in a dull manner? How in the world is it possible to preach truths so glorious and a message so good as the gospel in a boring way? A guy can stand up all day long and talk about true things, but if his demeanor does not match the realities of what he is proclaiming, I don't believe him. Either the truths he is proclaiming are not as glorious as he says or he does not believe the glorious truths that he proclaims. I hope you get the gist of my point. Yes, tell me what is right and true and what I should believe, but show me how much you love these things! Show me these things are eternally important. Let me feel the gravity of these truths in your voice, body language, and affections.

I certainly do not suggest that anyone should fake affections. So this leaves us with a constant challenge. We need to be spending time with the Lord. We need to prepare our hearts just as thoroughly as we prepare our content. We need to work our affections up to a fervent pitch before stepping into the pulpit. These truths matter too much to be read like a menu at a restaurant. Exhort them as if you truly believe them and their implications.

 Which of these tips are most helpful to you? I'd love to hear your feedback.

Part II of this post contains tips 6-10

Our Sovereign King

"...and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." (Hebrews 1:3)

Is God truly and completely sovereign over the world? This is a much debated topic. Unfortunately, this topic is debated most heavily by Christians. What should be an easy consensus, that Christ is sovereign over all things, is highly controversial.

Why is this topic so heated? One reason is that we just like to debate. Many people just enjoy having something to disagree about and enjoy playing contrarian on a number of issues. A second reason for debate is that we immediately begin over analyzing and concluding unnecessary things. For example, someone will say, "well, if Christ is completely sovereign over all things, then free will is not real." That is not true. The Bible never teaches that free will is not real. In fact, the Bible teaches clearly that everyone makes decisions and that these decisions and choices matter. However, the Bible teaches clearly that our God reigns. He is not constrained by any outside force. He is sovereign.

This topic should be one of great comfort for the believer, not one for arguments. There are many applications to our lives that this doctrine holds:

1. This doctrine grounds our confidence in the wisdom of God. If God is sovereign, and He "does all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11)," then we should submit ourselves to the wisdom of God.

2. This doctrine eliminates fear about tomorrow. If our God reigns over the universe, and everything in it, then we should not fear today, tomorrow, or next week. Our God controls the future. If we are in Christ, then we can be certain that future has our good in mind (Romans 8:28).

3. This doctrine eases temptations to worry about things I cannot control. We like to control things, but we actually control very little. This doctrine eases our temptation and need to try to control everything around us. God is sovereign, not us.

4. This doctrine propels us to prayer. Far from eliminating our need to pray, this doctrine grounds are hopes in prayer. Our God sits on the throne. He is over all things. If there is someone to appeal to for our needs and to bring our fears to, it is the One who rules over everything. The sovereignty of God catapults us into prayer.

5. This doctrine comforts us in life's bitter trials. When I know and understand that God is in control, I can face anything that comes my way, even suffering. If God does not remove me from my suffering, than He has a loving and wise plan for my suffering. I am comforted in those moments, even when I hurt.

At the end of the day, this doctrine is not for arguing about, it is an anchor for our lives. I want to assert something to everyone reading this, especially the person who professes faith in Christ and belief in the Bible, yet does not believe God is totally sovereign: every true believer holds the doctrine of God's sovereignty. Every single person believes it. How can I make that claim? Because at the end of the day, every believer holds the belief that Christ is returning to consummate the kingdom of God and set it in place for all of eternity. Every believer holds the belief that we will be raised from the grave to live forever with God. If we believe that, then it is the doctrine of God's sovereignty that supports that belief. Without holding to God's complete sovereignty, we have no confidence or guarantee that God can actually do what we say is going to happen. We have no certainty that Christ will return to put his enemies under his feet. We have no guarantee we will be raised from the grave. It is the sovereignty of God that grounds our hope in these things. So every believer holds this doctrine. On our knees we all hold to God's sovereignty, it is why we pray at all. It is only when many rise to their feet that they become "smarter" and begin to question it. Let's rejoice in this wonderful truth and build our lives around it.

A sermon I taught on this topic: The Sovereignty of God Over All Things

The God of All Comfort

This life is full of so many ups and downs. It is undoubtedly easier to live in those "up" moments, but it is not always better. God can and does use our "down" moments to draw us near to Him. These "down" moments lead us to pray more pointedly, more fervently, and more desperately. Those are good things. When we are in those "up" moments we can easily get by without prayer (not in reality, but in our own minds), without any fervency or desperation.

My family and I have learned this through all the trials we have experienced with our son, Kaleb. As a kidney transplant patient, he is on medications that suppresses his immune system, so he can get sick easily. Any time he is not feeling good, it is easy to be catapulted into one of those "down" moments. This is just the reality of being a parent who loves your child.

But I have learned personally, that these moments cause me to rely more on God than I was before. I have learned that our God personally comforts those in affliction. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our afflictions..."

Friends, it does not matter what you are facing today; our God comforts in ALL our afflictions. I am comforted; that does not mean I am always comfortable. But I am comforted. I have peace, even when I am desperate. Thank God for the trials you face; these pains bring you closer to Him and make you more dependent on Him than we often are without the trials. Keep in mind the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior knows the agony of pain. He knows what we face. And he is our Mediator and Intercessor. He can sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15) and he promises to give us sufficient grace for our trials (2 Corinthians 12:9). Run to him, friends.

A Chain-Smoking Pregnant Woman vs Abortion: Which is Morally Reprehensible?

I want to write briefly on something I was pondering recently on abortion. I want to address the fickle and subjective use of logic happening regarding abortion. Inevitably there will be someone who reads this and wants to immediately dismiss my argument because they will reference the very very very few abortions that happen to save the life of the mother. I am not arguing against that. I am addressing the abortions (which are the majority) in which only the child's life is in danger, because it has a mother and/or a father that does not want them, and does not want the responsibility of caring for them. This is about the inconsistent logic that continues to be displayed in our culture regarding abortion.

It is universally accepted that a pregnant woman who smokes cigarettes, abuses alcohol, or shoots up heroine is doing a morally reprehensible thing. It disgusts us that a woman carrying a child would do such things. I have never heard anyone excuse these behaviors as acceptable. 

However, I have some questions, particularly those in the pro-choice camp:

**shouldn't it be the woman's right to choose what kind of healthcare she provides herself?

**isn't it a woman's right to do whatever she wants, after all, it is her body?

**on what grounds would we argue that her actions (wild partying) are morally reprehensible? 

I hope you get the gist of my questions? These are the same questions asked by those who want to justify abortion. But doesn't the woman who may be abusing different substances while pregnant have the same case to make as the woman going to the abortion clinic? Instead of having rights over her body, the pregnant drug abuser, chain-smoker, or alcoholic is looked at as a monster. 

Now don't get me wrong, I believe it is absolutely morally reprehensible for a pregnant woman to be on drugs or alcohol while pregnant, but I also believe it is just as indefensible for her to walk down to the abortion clinic. It appears the logic of many in our culture is that a pregnant woman smoking crack, cigarettes, or getting drunk regularly is morally despicable, but a woman going to the abortion clinic is exercising her choice (rights). What is despicable is our vile logic. 

It is time for us to wake up to the gross inconsistencies of our culture. 

Spiritual Slumps

Sports fans are accustomed to hearing about slumps. Basketball players have shooting slumps. Baseball players have hitting slumps. A slump for them is a season of time in which they have a difficult time making a shot or getting a hit. 

Slumps are common in sports. It is unrealistic to think you can constantly make shots or get hits. So when players go through this, we often here the antidote prescribed, "they need to shoot their way out of the slump" or "they need to keep swinging the bat until they hit their way out of the slump." 

The idea is that they need to keep going through the habits and routines of their craft, be it shooting a basketball or hitting a baseball, until they get out of the slump. 

In the Christian life, we also experience slumps. It is not uncommon for us to go through spiritual slumps. During these times our relationship with God feels stagnant, stifled, and unproductive. These seasons can make it difficult to pray, read the Bible, or gather with the church in corporate worship.

So how do we get out of these slumps? Is there an antidote for overcoming these times?

The same advice given to sports players would be my advice for getting out of a spiritual slump. You need to "hit" your way out of it. You need to "shoot" yourself out of these slumps. What do I mean? You need to keep going through the habits and routines of our spiritual disciplines, until we get out of the slump. 

The greatest thing we can do during our spiritual slumps is start pouring ourselves into the Word of God. We need to read and reflect and rejoice at God in His Word. We need to pray. Pray without ceasing and with a fervency that God would awaken our cold hearts to Him. We need to gather with the church for worship. We need to be singing the praises of God and hearing sermons from the Bible. 

James 4:8 tells us "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you..."

The promise of this verse is that if we will make a move toward God, He will make a move toward us. If we are in a spiritual slump, the antidote is to run hard after God. God is not elusive, He is not hiding from us. 

So if you are currently in a spiritual slump, or soon find you are, shoot your way out through prayer and Scripture reading until you are out. 

Question: how often do you find yourself in spiritual slumps? What things have you found helpful for getting out of them?