DON'T WASTE YOUR TWEETS...using technology to glorify the Lord and promote His truth - even if it's during worship services

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As the nation prepares itself for General Motors to become Government Motors by virtue of bankruptcy; as families are awaiting the less than hopeful news about Air France flight 447 that has gone missing over the ocean near the west coast of Africa; and as most of us are experiencing difficult times financially due to the economy - some prominent pastors in the Christian blogosphere have voiced concern about a possible trend on whether or not it is appropriate for believers to be "twittering" during worship services. On a scale of 1 to 10 this issue at face value is at best a 2. The only reason I address it here is because some have tried to make what is tertiary, primary.

Surprisingly, one of those pastors is a favorite of mine and maybe yours, Dr. John Piper. I like Piper - especially the books he has penned. He has spent most of his ministry consumed with calling the body of Christ to the supremacy of God in all things; to sound theology in life and practice; to biblical fidelity; to the gospel of sola fide; and to do so with an unmistakable joy and delight in the One Triune God of the Scriptures. It is a holy mission he has been about for which I support him and have benefited greatly. I have featured here recently his videos on President Obama on abortion; the prosperity gospel; and an interview that he did with Tim Keller and D.A. Carson. All excellent and worthy of your time and attention.

That is why it came as a surprise to read his recent words in relation to twittering during worship services.

Here is a portion of his words:

Preaching and hearing preaching are worship. Preaching is expository exultation. The preacher is explaining the Bible and applying the Bible and EXULTING over the truth in the Bible. The listener is understanding, and applying, and joining in the exultation. Hearing preaching is heart-felt engagement in the exposition and exultation of the Word of God.

This is a fragile bond. The fact that an electric cord is easily cut, does not mean that the power flowing through it is small. It produces bright and wonderful effects. So it is with preaching. Great power flows through fragile wires of spiritual focus.

Perfume can break it. A ruffled collar can break it. A cough can break it. A whisper can break it. Clipping fingernails, chewing gum, a memory, a stomach growl, a sunbeam, and a hundred other things can break it. The power that flows through the wire of spiritual attention is strong, but the wire is weak.

The first paragraph I agree with mostly. The last two are seem a bit odd to me.

Preaching God's Word

Preaching God's Word rightly divided and listening to it with a life desiring to obey its truth is foundational to one's Christian life (cp, 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16-4:5; Luke 6:46). Preaching God's Word as a workman unashamed is very important and essential in the worship of our Lord publicly. But it is just as important to present ourselves as living sacrifices daily (Roms. 12:1-2). To eat and drink to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). Confession of sin (Psalm 51; 66:18); unfeigned prayer (Eph. 6:18-21; Luke 18:1); singing a new song in our hearts to the Lord (Psalm 96; Col. 3:16-17; Eph. 5:17-20); or giving cheerfully to the Lord of our finances (2 Cor. 9) is also a valuable part of worship. So while the relationship between preaching and parishioner is valuable, it is only one aspect in biblical worship.

To illustrate, if you are not a preacher, but are doing your vocation or trade with excellence to the Lord, then it is an act of worship to God (Col. 3:17). This was Luther's point paraphrased: "the shoe-maker and the preacher have this in common." IOW, the pastor's work is not more holy than the average Joe doing his job well or the average Jenny investing her life in her home and children. Both are instruments of praise to God and bring exultation to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, nowhere does Scripture teach that being filled with the Spirit begins with or finds itself solely in the act of preaching (read Eph. 5:17-20; Gal. 5:20-23). In fact, attitudes and actions such as meditating on God's Word (Psalm 1); craving God's Word (1 Peter 2:2); hiding His Word in your heart (Psalm 119:9-11); obeying God's Word (John 14:15) etc. might have a more important role than the one of preaching God's Word.

Electric Cords Can Be Cut by Whispers and Sunbeams

With that as a premise, where I would respectively and humbly take exception with brother Piper is the notion that the connection between the Word preached and the Word heard is a "fragile bond" that can be "easily cut" because "great power flows through fragile wires of spiritual focus." To suggest that that bond (if there is one) can be easily severed by things such as perfume, whispers, chewing gum, a cough, sunbeams, etc. is silly.

Now for a moment, take John's premise of "fragile wires" being severed by "whispers and sunbeams" and apply that to the preaching ministry of those we see in the Scriptures:

• apply it to Elijah on Mt. Carmel who in front of 450 of Baal's prophets he calls down fire from heaven that consumes the water-drenched sacrifice upon the alter and then brought them down to the brook Kishon and slit their throats (1 Kings 18:20-40).
• apply it to Stephen's last sermon where he is being stoned to death while delivering the gospel (Acts 7).
• try applying that ruffling a collar and stomach noises are sufficient forces to disrupt the Holy Spirit in the ministry of the Word to His people in Sunday worship with the heated inquisition of Paul when preaching at Mars Hill or while he was preaching to the violent crowds at Lystra where the Jews from Antioch and Iconium seized Paul, stoned him, and left him for dead (Acts 17:16ff; 14:8-20).
• bring that fragile axiom into the arena of Peter's great gospel message at Pentecost continuing to his two sermons at Solomon's portico where he was ultimately arrested (Acts 2-4).
• or better yet, apply that to the preaching ministry of John the Baptist or our Lord Himself in their less than quiet, serene settings (Matt. 5-7; Matt. 23; Matt. 3).

The list goes on and on. Respectively, I believe that Piper's assertion that there are delicate cords in which the spiritual forces flow between pastor and pew sounds more like frustrated Monasticism than the biblical preaching of the Lord, the Apostles, the early church fathers, and the reformers of the 15th-18th centuries.

One last example:

Could you imagine the preaching ministry of George Whitefield being defined with fragile electric cords like this? Picture Whitefield fearlessly thundering aloud the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ while enduring insults both verbal and physical at his meetings. Picture fights breaking out at his meetings; unsavory disgusting things being thrown at him as an act of derision; where he is publicly mocked relentlessly for his severe cross-eyed handicap while he was heralding the gospel. Could you imagine him being concerned about the connection between the Word and the people being prohibited because of "sunbeams and whispers, someone clearing their throat or their stomach making noises", etc.? He would have laughed at the notion that those trite little things were powerful enough to stifle for even a moment the preaching of God's Word to those listening.

Beloved, have the "electric cords" of American Christianity really become that flimsy that pastors today fear they can be lacerated by "whispers and sunbeams?" So we see the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others while His Word is being proclaimed as so weak that we ourselves have to create an almost perfect atmosphere for Him to operate? For if we do, then I would suggest sleeping in on Sunday. Just stay home, download the best DVD or MP3 you can find on any given text of Scripture and listen to in the peaceful surroundings of your home. What the church in America maybe needs is a bit of sovereign interruption on Sunday morning... Sometimes our carefully cultivated programs and plans need to be shattered to crumble self-reliance, to humble us, and to cause our dependency for all things to be in the Lord alone and not ourselves. This is precisely the place where He will receive the greatest glory and praise (i.e. remember Gideon - Judges 7). If the spiritual forces of the Christian faith proclaimed in a worship service can so easily be cut by a cough or a stomach growl or fingernails being clipped, then what kind of faith are we really proclaiming?

Bring this same logic back to the theme of twittering. It is being suggested that if you "tweet" during a service you are disrupting worship - potentially "cutting the fragile cords." That you are no longer engaged in what the pastor is saying; you are not worshipping; you are too distracted to possibly be communing with God or your fellow believers in reverence to the Lord. Sounds a bit foolish doesn't it?

Under that principle, note taking would cause a similar disturbance along with watching a PowerPoint of the message. Video feeding the pastor's preaching to other campus sites would be as equally disruptive to worship. (You can see where this kind of logic leads).

Twitter Away to the Glory of God

Beloved, if you tweet, then I want to encourage you this week at church to take notes, type on your laptops, use your iPhones and Blackberrys and also tweet away. Use the technology wisely, but use it indeed, to share an encouraging word from His Word being preached. Live-blogging has been condoned by Piper and most evangelical leaders for the past 3 or 4 years. Not one concern was ever voiced about having several web-geeks typing full outlines with textual explanations of what the pastor has just said - in fact it has been praised as being an asset to the ministry not a detriment. So why then when it comes to micro-blogging with twitter has this crossed the line? I don't have the answer either.

May I offer a few helpful suggestions that when you tweet during a worship service (remember you only have 140 characters to use for each entry) you don't waste them:

1. May you seek to glorify the Lord by what you say and how you say it (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17)

2. Write to have your thoughts seasoned with grace, truth and humility (Eph. 4:29)

3. Seek to be redemptive; not just to be right, real, or relevant (Col. 3:8-13)

4. When posting during a worship service, post something that the Lord is teaching you through that service. Encourage someone else that couldn't be in church with a portion of a verse, a thought from the message, or an insight into a verse the pastor has given. Do your normal tweeting and follow up away from church. IOW, sanctify your tweets while in church. This way you honor your pastor and still can use twitter to benefit others (1 Thess. 5:12-14)

5. Don't use your tweets to vent against another, speak wrongly against another, or even sow seeds of discord against another. Take the high ground of Christian charity by not repaying evil for evil. Remember to bless those who curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for those that despitefully use you and persecute you (Matt. 5:44-48)

6. Be respectful of those around you. Just as with anything in a church service don't draw attention to yourself. Consider other people's needs greater than your own. Demonstrate humility and Christian charity. If you tweet, keep them very few in number so you can stay engaged in the service itself (just as with note-taking). (Phil. 2:1-4; Roms. 15:1-10)

7. Lastly, keep your tweets when posting from a worship service focused on what is happening in the service itself. Focus on the passage being preached or the gospel. You never know what follower you have on twitter that needs to be encouraged from the Word of God or in the hope of the gospel. And as you know, they may RT your tweet to hundreds of others on their list as well (Psalm 119:169-176)

Also, here are some real disturbance during a worship service to guard against:

1. Unbiblical, God is my girl-friend songs being offered as praise and worship

2. Pastor's who get raptured in their own stories and rhetoric rather than preaching the Word of God

3. Alliterations in sermon outlines. Please think hard before using them. Most are not good at it and done poorly can be prohibitive to your preaching and to the listeners to hear ten points forced so all can begin with the letter e

4. Mechanical prayers used for transition purposes

5. 30 minutes of tremendous Christ-centered worship in song followed by ten minutes of announcements

6. Using the famous of society to give credence and validity to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ

7. Confusing patriotism with biblical Christianity where politicians are given pulpit time to promote moralism but not the gospel

8. And lastly, opinion elevated to biblical status because so and so affirms it. Truth by evangelical celebrity preference is a poor foundation to build ones Christian life upon

Twitter Is a Communication Tool - Let's Use it Wisely

Like PowerPoint, live video-feeds. etc. Use it for God and His glory. If the wires between preaching and hearing the Word preached are as weak as Piper might say it is, may I suggest - get better wire.

The initial problem is really not with the one twittering, but with the one behind the pulpit preaching. To the pastors, preach with such power and authority that hearing Christ-centered messages bring us to our faces before a holy God in worship, praise, prayer, reverence, contrition with brokenness and humility. If the Holy Spirit is truly working in that worship service, twittering would not be able break the strong cords of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in worship.

And it just might encourage others not at that service to be encouraged in their walk with the Lord as well.

I appreciate Dr. Piper and His Ministry Greatly

If any of you attend John Piper's church you are blessed. He is a godly man who is one of the finest preachers in the world today. His passion for God and His glory in all things is infectious and contagious. If I were a member of his church I would have one major problem in the worship on Sunday mornings: there is so many good insights that he unfolds in each sermon, it would be very difficult to not want to tweet throughout the entire service so others could be blessed as well :-).

May our worship not be feigned; may we be attentive as God's people to the preaching of His Word; may we be ready and available to minister a word of grace to others as the Lord gives opportunity (even through twitter); may we do so preferring others more than ourselves; and in all we do - do it solely for God and His glory alone through Jesus Christ our Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Let us be both faithful hearers and doers of the Word this week. Amen?

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE...make much of God - even in your suffering

"Whatever makes us more and more able to enjoy making much of God is a mercy. For there is no greater joy than joy in the greatness of God. And if we must suffer to see this and savor it most deeply, then suffering is a mercy. And Christ's call to take up our cross and join Him on the Calvary road is love."

-John Piper, "Don't Waste Your Life"

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE...Lecrae

SPIRITUAL GIFTS...by Dr. John Piper

encore presentation

Dr. Piper's writings and books have been a tremendous encouragement in the lives of countless thousands and his online sermons have been a valuable source of the study of God's Word to equally as many.

Following is a message he preached 25 years ago on the subject of spiritual gifts. I think Dr. Piper offers some very helpful and foundational truths from God's Word about the nature, function and purpose of spiritual gifts. I commend this message to you and pray it will equip you biblically on this always "hot-button" topic.

Grace and peace,
Steve
1 Peter 4:10

Preached: March 15, 1981 (Morning)
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed" (1 Corinthians 12:1). I assume that applies to us also: we ought not to be uninformed about the nature and purpose of spiritual gifts. So this final message in our series on the Holy Spirit will deal with this subject. Instead of spreading myself too thin across 1 Corinthians 12,13 and 14 (the major section on spiritual gifts) I have chosen to focus on several smaller texts so that we can examine their teaching more closely.

If you were reading through the New Testament, the first place you would run into the term "spiritual gift" is Romans 1:11,12. Let's look at this text together. Writing to the church at Rome, Paul says, "I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." The translation "impart to you some spiritual gift" is misleading because it sounds like Paul wants to help them have a gift, but the text actually means that he wants to give them the benefit of his gifts. "I long to see you that I may use my gifts to strengthen you."

The first and most obvious thing we learn from this text is that spiritual gifts are for strengthening others.
This, of course, does not mean that the person who has a spiritual gift gets no joy or benefit from it. (We will see differently in a moment.) But it does suggest that gifts are given to be given. They are not given to be hoarded. "I desire to share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you." What does strengthen mean? He's not referring to bodily strength but strength of faith. The same word is used in 1 Thessalonians 3:2 where Paul says,

We sent Timothy, our brother and servant in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen you in your faith and to exhort you that no one be moved by these afflictions.

To strengthen someone by a spiritual gift means to help their faith not give way as easily when trouble enters their life. We have spiritual gifts in order to help other people keep the faith and maintain an even keel in life's storms. If there is anybody around you whose faith is being threatened in any way at all take stock whether you may have a spiritual gift peculiarly suited to strengthen that person.

I think it would be fair to say also from this text that you shouldn't bend your mind too much trying to label your spiritual gift before you use it. That is, don't worry about whether you can point to prophecy or teaching or wisdom or knowledge or healing or miracles or mercy or administration, etc., and say, "That's mine." The way to think is this: The reason we have spiritual gifts is so that we can strengthen other people's faith; here is someone whose faith is in jeopardy; how can I help him? Then do or say what seems most helpful and if the person is helped then you may have discovered one of your gifts. If you warned him of the folly of his way and he repented, then perhaps you have the gift of "warning." If you took a walk with her and said you knew what she was going through and lifted her hope, then perhaps you have the gift of "empathy.'' If you had them over to your home when they were new and lonely, then perhaps you have the gift of "hospitality." We must not get hung up on naming our gifts. The thing to get hung up on is, "Are we doing what we can do to strengthen the faith of the people around us?

I really believe that the problem of not knowing our spiritual gifts is not a basic problem. More basic is the problem of not desiring very much to strengthen other people's faith. Human nature is more prone to tear down than it is to build up. The path of least resistance leads to grumbling and criticism and gossip, and many there be that follow it. But the gate is narrow and the way is strewn with obstacles which leads to edification and the strengthening of faith. So the basic problem is becoming the kind of person who wakes up in the morning, thanks God for our great salvation and then says, "Lord, O how I want to strengthen people's faith today. Grant that at the end of this day somebody will be more confident of Your promises and more joyful in Your grace because I crossed his path." The reason I say becoming this kind of person is more basic than finding out your spiritual gift, is that when you become this kind of person the Holy Spirit will not let your longings go to waste. He will help you find ways to strengthen the faith of others and that will be the discovery of your gifts. So let's apply ourselves to becoming the kind of people more and more who long to strengthen each other's faith.

Now, in Romans 1:12 Paul restates verse 11 in different words: I want to strengthen you with my spiritual gift, "that is, I want us to be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." Paul does two things here. First, he uses the old "It's my pleasure" tactic. You remember my sermon on Christian Hedonism and humility? I argued that when we say, "It's my pleasure," after doing someone a favor, it is an expression of humility. It is like saying, "Don't get too excited about my self-sacrifice; I'm just doing what I like to do." When Paul rereads Romans 1:11 he probably says, "Hmmm, that may sound a bit presumptuous, as if I'm the great martyr doing all for their sake, when in fact I look forward to a great encouragement from them for myself." So as he restates verse 11 in verse 12 he adds that he, too, and not just they, is going to be helped when they meet. That is the first thing he does.

The second thing he does is show that the way he will strengthen their faith by his spiritual gift (verse 11) is by encouraging them with his faith.
In verse 11 he aims to strengthen them; in verse 12 he aim to encourage them. In verse 11 he strengthens faith by his spiritual gift; in verse 12 he encourages by his faith. The conclusion I draw from these parallels is this: a spiritual gift is an expression of faith which aims to strengthen faith. It is activated from faith in us and aims for faith in another. Another way to put it would be this: A spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively (in word or deed) for the strengthening of someone else's faith.

It is helpful to me to think about spiritual gifts in this way because it keeps me from simply equating them with natural abilities. Many unbelievers have great abilities in teaching and in administration, for example. And these abilities are God-given whether the people recognize this or not. But these would not be called "spiritual gifts" of teaching or administration because they are not expressions of faith and they are not aiming to strengthen faith. Our faith in the promises of God is the channel through which the Spirit flows on His way to strengthening the faith of others (Galatians 3:5). Therefore, no matter what abilities we have, if we are not relying on God and not aiming to help others rely on Him, then our ability is not a "spiritual gift." It is not "spiritual" because the Holy Spirit is not flowing through it from faith to faith.

This has tremendous implications for how we choose church staff and church officers and board members. It means that we will never simply ask, "who has the skill to be efficient?" We will always go beyond that and ask, "Do they use their skill in such a way that you can tell it is an expression of their hearty reliance on the Lord? And do they exercise their skill with a view to strengthening the faith and joy of others?" A church where the Holy Spirit is alive and powerful will be a church very sensitive to the difference between natural abilities and spiritual gifts.

Now let's go on to Romans 12:3-8, a unit dealing in a bit more detail with spiritual gifts, though they are only called "gifts" here.

"By the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him... (v.3). Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service, in our serving; he who teaches in his teaching; he who exhorts in his exhortation; he who contributes in liberality; he who gives aid with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness (vv. 6-8)."

I will only draw your attention to two things. First, I believe this text confirms the earlier point that we shouldn't get too lathered up about whether we can label our gifts or not. Spiritual gifts are not a limited and defined group of activities spelled out in the New Testament. Rather, spiritual gifts are any ability the Spirit gives you to express your faith in order to strengthen another person. Notice the last four mentioned in verse 8, "exhorting" (or comforting, encouraging -- it's the same word used back in 1:12), "contributing" (or sharing), "giving aid" (may mean "presiding" ) and "acts of mercy." The remarkable thing about these (with the possible exception of "presiding") is that all believers are called to do these: exhort, give, be merciful. So the "gift" must be that some are enabled by the Spirit to do it more heartily and effectively and frequently than others. So any virtue at all in the believer's life which he is enabled to do with zest and with benefit to others can be called his gift.

The second thing I want to point out from this text is that both the gifts we have and the faith to exercise them are given to us by God in varying measure. The reason Paul teaches this truth is to help us think soberly about ourselves and not too highly. The gifted are always in danger of pride -- it was a terrible problem at Corinth (and perhaps at Rome, too). So Paul uncovers a profound truth that is intended to blow away all pride -- all self-reliance or boasting. He says in v. 6 that we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. In other words, any distinction that sets you off from others in ability is owing to grace -- i.e., it is freely given and not earned or deserved. So you can't boast in it.

But someone might say, "O.K., I can't boast in what gift I have but I can boast in the zeal with which I use it." That's like the person who says, "Well, I can't boast that I was born in America, but I can boast that I used my freedom to be productive and get rich." Both of those statements are wrong. Moses said to Israel in Deuteronomy 8:17,

"Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth."

(And He, incidentally, will hold us accountable for using it to help the disadvantaged rather than padding our lives with luxury.) And in a similar way Paul says here in Romans 12:3,

"Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned to him."

So not only the gift but the measure of faith we have to exercise the gift is a gift from God. And God has revealed this to us not to lessen our hunger and yearning for great faith but to humble us and cause us to look to him for everything. God has done all things "so that no human being might boast in His presence.... Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:29,31). Few things keep our pride quelled and our thinking about ourselves sober and humble like the awareness that the Spirit of God is absolutely sovereign and gives both the gifts and the faith to use them to whomever He pleases in whatever degree He pleases for the upbuilding of His body. The church should be the humblest and happiest fellowship on the earth.

And now, finally, turn to 1 Peter 4:10,11, one of my favorite texts. I want to make four brief observations about spiritual gifts on the basis of these two verses. Let's read them.

"As each has received a gift, employ it for one another (or serve it up to one another) as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ..."

First, note that "each has received a gift.
Gifts are not for a few but for all, and every believer has abilities which the Holy Spirit has given and can use to strengthen others. And it is the supreme joy of life to discover what they are and then pour yourself out to others through these gifts. And you will find them if you really desire to be God's instrument in bringing about faith and joy in other people. That, you recall, is the fundamental problem.

Second, the picture we have in verse 10 is of a house with variously talented stewards who are given the owner's funds to administer.
The house is the church, the stewards are all of you, the various talents are all our varied gifts, the funds are God's grace and the administration is the exercise of our gifts. The most striking part of this comparison is the analogy between the owner's funds and God's grace. Grace is the currency in the household of God. We are called to be stewards of grace. We have a board of stewards in the Minnesota Baptist Conference and they are given the responsibility to receive and disburse thousands of dollars for the household called the Minnesota Baptist Conference. That's the way we should think of our responsibility in the church - all of us. We are recipients of grace and it is our duty to disburse this grace for others. The vehicle by which we make these disbursements is our spiritual gift. So now we have another definition of spiritual gifts: they are abilities by which we receive the grace of God and disburse that grace to others.

This fits beautifully with our earlier definition of spiritual gifts as the abilities given by the Spirit which express our faith and aim to strengthen the faith of others. They fit together because faith is what the house owner wants in all his stewards and grace is the only currency that can purchase faith. Or, to change the image, faith feeds on grace and is strengthened by grace. God gives us his grace in Christ and all the promises that are Yes in him, and our response is faith; then we, in the exercise of our spiritual gifts disburse that grace to others and thus feed their faith. It is the free and precious grace that strengthens the heart in faith (Hebrews 13:9). So, what should be happening at Bethlehem Baptist Church is that all God's stewards -- all of you -- should be waking up to more and more of God's grace that you have in Christ, and finding more and more ways to creatively disburse that grace to each other and to those outside by the use of your spiritual gifts. O, that the Spirit might cause a wheeling and dealing in the currency of grace at Bethlehem Baptist Church!

The third observation from 1 Peter 4:11 is that grace can be disbursed through gifts which are word-oriented or deed-oriented.
"Whoever speaks (let him do it) as one who utters oracles of God." If your gift involves speaking do not rely on your own insight, but look to God to give His words through you. We impart grace to our listener only if we give them a word of God. It may not be an exact word of Scripture, but a word prompted and guided by God so that attention is directed to him, not us. Our aim is to strengthen faith and He is the infinitely trustworthy hope-giver, not us.

Then it says, "Whoever renders service (let him do it) as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies." So, if your gift involves practical deeds of service do not try to do them in your own strength. For then your gift will cease to be a "spiritual gift." It must come from faith and reliance on grace in order to be a "spiritual gift." So then grace can be disbursed to other people either by gifts of word or gifts of deed, if we speak with the words and act with the strength that God supplies.

The final point from this text, and my final one this morning, is that the aim of all spiritual gifts is "that in everything God might be glorified through Jesus Christ" (v. 11).
This means that God's aim in giving us gifts, and in giving us the faith to exercise them, is that his glory might be displayed. He wants us and the world to marvel at him and think he is fantastic. The stupendous reality of God is all encompassing. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Romans 11:36). And there is nothing more thrilling, more joyful, more meaningful, more satisfying than to find our niche in the eternal unfolding of God's glory. Our gift may look small but as a part of the revelation of God's infinite glory it takes on stupendous proportions.

© COPYRIGHT 1981, 1997 John Piper

PIPER RESPONDS TO OBAMA'S STATEMENT OF SUPPORT OF ABORTION ON THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE...very, very powerful

This is how a genuine minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to its nations leaders. With biblical truth, authority, grace, respect, charity, and conviction. Are you listening Pastor Warren?

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?...by John Piper

Updated

Watch this brief video below and think through carefully the important question that it raises from the beginning: what is the gospel? And then may I ask you to reflect on this conclusion: did Piper answer that question? If so, explain; if not, explain.

I look forward to hearing from you.

For a band of Bereans,
Steve

Here is another video where Piper is declaring the essentials of what the gospel is... in one sentence and in a under 30 seconds.

It is accompanied by some moving personal testimony of his as well. I highly commend it to you. I appreciate John and his affection for the gospel of our Lord Jesus when he preaches like this!

THE HEART OF THE REFORMATION - THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE...salvation is of the Lord!

"PEOPLE DO NOT drift toward holiness. 

Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, 

prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. 

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; 

we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; 

we drift toward superstition and call it faith. 

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; 

we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking 

we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness 

and convince ourselves we have been liberated." 

-D. A. Carson, For the Love of God

Those words pierce my heart everytime I read them; and thus the great need for the gospel in my life everyday is profound. Left to myself and my own devices, religious moorings and my own righteousness, I deserve nothing but hell. But God in His grace saved me (Titus 3:5) and in place of His wrath He gave me His grace; in place of His justice, He gave me His mercy; and in place of His enmity, He gave me His unfailing love.

IOW, God has saved me from Himself, and yet, unto Himself. 

He has taken my heart of stone and given me a heart of flesh (Col. 2:11-12). He took a whitewashed tomb that was nothing more than full of dead men's bones, and made me a new creature - and how I praise Him for His sovereign work of grace in my life! I am undeserving of it, can't merit it, wouldn't choose it of my own initiative, and can't buy it. Salvation is His free gift of grace to me and to all who love Him as Lord and Savior of their lives.

The one supreme joy that Luther emphasized 489 years ago to a recalcitrant Roman church was that "salvation is of the Lord!" That is why the great system of theology known as Calvinism is referred to as "the doctrines of grace." We are saved only by grace--and all of grace, beloved--because it was God alone "in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19).

"Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen they cannot lift the axe of justice; who are so corrupt they cannot change their own natures; so adverse to God that they cannot turn to Him of their own strength; so blind they cannot see Him, so deaf they cannot hear Him, and so dead that He Himself must open their graves." -G.S. Bishop

Now that's grace beloved...

What Jesus has accomplished through His sinless life, His once for all sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and His bodily resurrection from the grave (1 Cor. 15:1-19; Heb. 2:9-18) we celebrate and glory in on this day of Reformation. Jesus was our propitiation (meaning: to satisfy, atone for and avert wrath; Jesus satisfied God's standard of holiness and justice; He gave His life on the cross as an atonement for our sins; and fully drank God's eternal wrath against us) and what man could never earn or merit of his own goodness, doing, philanthropic kindness, or religious good works--Christ has done fully and completely. And that by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone so that we may have peace with God forever! (cp, Roms. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 2:11).

These doctrines of grace were not invented by men like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and other reformers. These men of God simply recovered the biblical gospel over Rome's work righteousness and trumpeted them boldly as an evangelistic proclamation in the face of the false gospel of Romanism that even exists in our day.  

In light of this, I would encourage you to read this brief article with accompanying video by Dr. James White today in response to Francis Beckwith's new tome  "Return to Rome."  It is excellent!

The following article by Dr. John Piper is a wonderful cause for worship, praise, joy and celebration in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. May it encourage you afresh to rejoice in the treasure of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ both to live it and proclaim it to another--even today.

Sola Fide,
Steve
Gal. 2:20-21

Ten Effects of Believing in the Five Points of Calvinism
by Dr. John Piper 

(April 20, 2002)

These ten points are my personal testimony to the effects of believing in the five points of Calvinism. I have just completed teaching a seminar on this topic and was asked by the class members to post these reflections so they could have access to them. I am happy to do so. They, of course, assume the content of the course, which is available on tape from Desiring God Ministries, but I will put them here for wider use in the hope that they might stir others to search, Berean-like, to see if the Bible teaches what I call "Calvinism."

1. These truths make me stand in awe of God and lead me into the depth of true God-centered worship.
I recall the time I first saw, while teaching Ephesians at Bethel College in the late '70's, the threefold statement of the goal of all God's work, namely, "to the praise of the glory of his grace" (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).

It has led me to see that we cannot enrich God and that therefore his glory shines most brightly not when we try to meet his needs but when we are satisfied in him as the essence of our deeds. "From him and through him and to him are all things. To him the glory forever" (Romans 11:36). Worship becomes an end in itself.

It has made me feel how low and inadequate are my affections, so that the Psalms of longing come alive and make worship intense.

2. These truths help protect me from trifling with divine things.
One of the curses of our culture is banality, cuteness, cleverness. Television is the main sustainer of our addiction to superficiality and triviality.

God is swept into this. Hence the trifling with divine things.

Earnestness is not excessive in our day. It might have been once. And, yes, there are imbalances in certain people today who don't seem to be able to relax and talk about the weather.

Robertson Nicole said of Spurgeon, "Evangelism of the humorous type [we might say, church growth of the marketing type] may attract multitudes, but it lays the soul in ashes and destroys the very germs of religion. Mr. Spurgeon is often thought by those who do not know his sermons to have been a humorous preacher. As a matter of fact there was no preacher whose tone was more uniformly earnest, reverent and solemn" (Quoted in The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p. 57).

3. These truths make me marvel at my own salvation.
After laying out the great, God-wrought salvation in Ephesians 1, Paul prays, in the last part of that chapter, that the effect of that theology will be the enlightenment of our hearts so that we marvel at our hope, and at the riches of the glory of our inheritance, and at the power of God at work in us – that is, the power to raise the dead.

Every ground of boasting is removed. Brokenhearted joy and gratitude abound.

The piety of Jonathan Edwards begins to grow. When God has given us a taste of his own majesty and our own wickedness, then the Christian life becomes a thing very different than conventional piety. Edwards describes it beautifully when he says,

The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope, and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is humble, brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior (Religious Affections, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959, pp. 339f).

4. These truths make me alert to man-centered substitutes that pose as good news.
In my book, The Pleasures of God (2000), pp. 144-145, I show that in the 18th century in New England the slide from the sovereignty of God led to Arminianism and thence to universalism and thence to Unitarianism. The same thing happened in England in the 19thcentury after Spurgeon.

Iain Murray's Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), p. 454, documents the same thing: "Calvinistic convictions waned in North America. In the progress of the decline which Edwards had rightly anticipated, those Congregational churches of New England which had embraced Arminianism after the Great Awakening gradually moved into Unitarianism and universalism, led by Charles Chauncy."

You can also read in J. I. Packer's Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 160, how Richard Baxter forsook these teachings and how the following generations reaped a grim harvest in the Baxter church in Kidderminster.

These doctrines are a bulwark against man-centered teachings in many forms that gradually corrupt the church and make her weak from the inside, all the while looking strong or popular.

1 Timothy 3:15, "The church of the living God [is] the pillar and bulwark of the truth."

5. These truths make me groan over the indescribable disease of our secular, God-belittling culture.
I can hardly read the newspaper or look at a TV ad or a billboard without feeling the burden that God is missing.

When God is the main reality in the universe and is treated as a non-reality, I tremble at the wrath that is being stored up. I am able to be shocked. So many Christians are sedated with the same drug as the world. But these teachings are a great antidote.

And I pray for awakening and revival.

And I try to preach to create a people that are so God-saturated that they will show and tell God everywhere and all the time.

We exist to reassert the reality of God and the supremacy of God in all of life.

6. These truths make me confident that the work which God planned and began, he will finish – both globally and personally.
This is the point of Romans 8:28-39.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7. These truths make me see everything in the light of God's sovereign purposes – that from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever and ever.
All of life relates to God. There's no compartment where he is not all-important and the one who gives meaning to everything. 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Seeing God's sovereign purpose worked out in Scripture, and hearing Paul say that "he accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11) makes me see the world this way.

8. These truths make me hopeful that God has the will, the right, and the power to answer prayer that people be changed.
The warrant for prayer is that God may break in and change things – including the human heart. He can turn the will around. "Hallowed be thy name" means: cause people to hallow your name. "May your word run and be glorified" means: cause hearts to be opened to the gospel.

We should take the New Covenant promises and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and in our neighbors and among all the mission fields of the world.

"God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give him a new heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19).

"Lord, circumcise their hearts so that they love you" (Deuteronomy 30:6).

"Father, put your spirit within them and cause them to walk in Your statutes" (Ezekiel 36:27).

"Lord, grant them repentance and the knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

"Father, open their hearts so that they believe the gospel" (Acts 16:14).

9. These truths reminds me that evangelism is absolutely essential for people to come to Christ and be saved, and that there is great hope for success in leading people to faith, but that conversion is not finally dependent on me or limited by the hardness of the unbeliever.
So it gives hope to evangelism, especially in the hard places and among the hard peoples.

John 10:16, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also. They will heed my voice."

It is God's work. Throw yourself into it with abandon.

10. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end.
Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand that I will accomplish all my purpose'"

Putting them altogether: God gets the glory and we get the joy.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org.
Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.