Skeúos (σκευ̂ος) Gr. 1. a vessel; 2. an implement

Recommended Music: Come Weary Saints

I have been greatly encouraged over the past several years to see somewhat of a resurgence in theologically rich Christian worship music.  For a decade or more it seemed that the "market" was flooded with lyrically shallow emotionally driven music.  Finding good solid lyrics with a more contemporary arrangement was difficult.  Over the past several years however church based ministries like Red Mountain Music, Indelible Grace Music, and Sovereign Grace Music have been producing excellent music that is also lyrically sound.  Many of the songs produced by these ministries teach Biblical truths neglected in much of Christian music today.  Truths such as the substitution, atonement, justification, sanctification, propitiation, etc.

Sunday Recap: April 27, 2008

This past Sunday morning we looked at Romans 12:12 where Paul reveals to us how the transformed life responds to difficulty and suffering. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

We began by stressing the importance of the believer’s response to suffering and persecution in the presence of a watching world. The believer’s response to trial, tribulation, and suffering sets him/her apart form the rest of the world.  The heading of this passage in the ESV is entitled “Marks of the True Christian.” This is the case Paul makes from verses 9-21. The true child of God is one who has been overwhelmed by the mercies of God and their life has been transformed and that transformed life looks like this and Paul begins listing the characteristics of a transformed life; humble service, unhypocritical love, brotherly affection for the brethren, a boiling passion in our service to God, and here in verse 12 an otherworldly response to suffering.

My T4G Conference Pics

Glad to be home

Being at T4G was spiritually refreshing, physically relaxing, and powerfully convicting. With all that said I really missed Jen. We will have been married 14 years this August and I am constantly amazed at how much closer we become with each passing year.

I remember wondering as a young man in my late teens and early 20’s how it was possible to love someone for life. Sure my parents did and my Grandparents did but they're supposed to. They are “old people” and that’s what “old people do” as if the love and commitment they exhibit today was present from day one of their marriage. This is not the case of course as I have learned. Marriage is tough work. You take 2 sinful, selfish (me more so in this case) people and make them live together under the same roof and then add kids to the mix and you have just created a challenge that surpasses even the most difficult reality TV show, but there is one factor, or should I say person, that makes all the difference; God.

Books & Resources: T4G 2008

In addition to all the great messages and the panel discussions at T4G 2008 we were also given the following books:

Leatherbound ESV Bible compliments of Crossway
The Future of Justification by John Piper
In My Place Condemned He Stood by J.I. Packer and Mark Dever
Pierced for Our Transgressions compiled by various authors
The Gospel According to Jesus: Revised and Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition by John MacArthur
The Gospel & Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever
Why We're Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin Deyoung & Ted Kluck
The Courage to Be Protestant by David Wells
Culture Shift by Albert Mohler
The Truth of the Cross by R.C. Sproul
The Faithful Preacher by Thabiti Anyabwile
If You Could Ask Any Question by Paul WIlliams & Barry Cooper
Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin
Christ & Culture Revisited by D.A. Carson
Preaching the Cross a compilation of the addresses given at T4G 2006

In addition to these we also received the complete set of messages delivered at the Sovereign Grace Ministries Leadership Conference in 2007 as well as a DVD and audio CD of messages from R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries.

God truly blessed us through the T4G organizers with a wealth of resources to better enable us to serve the churches God has entrusted us with.  What a blessing these will be.

T4G 2008: Session 8

The closing session was very fitting and was delivered by C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Mahaney is a pastor’s pastor. He is a very simple and humble man. He admits that he is not a scholar but this in no way diminishes his giftedness to communicate the truths of Scripture to pastors.

The text C.J. used was Philippians 1:3-8. He used the example of Paul’s love for the believers of Philippi as a model for the love that pastors should have for the flock God has entrusted them with.

He shared 3 dominant characteristics behind Paul’s joy in life and ministry.

1. Gratefulness to God (v. 3). Mahaney stressed the importance of living our lives in gratefulness. He warned us of the sin of      complaining. He made it clear that complaining is a serious sin because it reveals pride. When we complain we are telling God “There is no need for this. I know what’s best for me and this isn’t” He also explained the importance of modeling gratefulness to our families as well as our ministries.

2. Faith for the future (v. 6). Paul was confident that God was the one who worked and because God had begun the      work He would be faithful to complete it. Mahaney quoted from Charles Bridges who said that the for the pastor the “main difficulty is not in our work but in ourselves.” Our problem does not lie in the work we are called to but rather the problem lies in our lack of faith in God.

3. Affection for others (v. 7-8). The affection Mahaney speaks of is a yearning for God’s people. We should yearn for them, love them, and desire to be with them. The solution for a lack of love and affection for others is to consider them in view of God’s grace and mercy. When I don’t yearn for someone consider the grace and love of Christ for them through the work of Christ. This is one for whom Christ died. We must survey the cross before we survey people.

Mahaney’s message was especially challenging to me as a pastor. I am thankful for C.J.’s heart and his ability to get down on the level of life with pastors. I was moved to ask God to change me and my attitude.

God bless,
Pastor Duane

T4G 2008: Session 7

Session 7 was amazing as John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN spoke to us concerning the supremacy of Christ and how it calls us to radical Christian sacrifice. He began by simply reading through the following passages from Hebrews in order without comment; Hebrews 10:32, 11:6; 24-26; 35, 12:2, 13:12-14. Mark Dever commented in the panel discussion after the session that this was a sermon in itself. He was right. Reading these passages in order teaches us a great deal about sacrifice in the Christian life.

Piper stated up front that his desire was to call us to a radical Christian life and ministry. Piper called pastor’s to a life of complete sacrifice. He explained that the concept of salt and light that Jesus spoke of involves the joyful embracing of suffering. He said as pastors we must live in such a way that the church learns to rejoice in suffering. He explained that the world is not going to glorify Christ because we as Christians are healthy, wealthy, and prosperous because these are the things the world lives for. They have their own “ticket” to these things and they will simply come to see Christ as our “ticket” to them. The problem of course, Piper stated, is that we throw that ticket away once the show begins. We must embrace the reviling of the world and rejoice in our suffering recognizing it as part of radical Christ centered, Christ exalting sacrifice.

Piper expounded two of the passages he read at the beginning of the message. The first was Hebrews 10:32-24. He explained that the things endured in these verses were endured because of the great reward which is Heaven and ultimately Christ. He proclaimed that “If we could see our hope we would rejoice as we suffer and die for Jesus.”

He also expounded Hebrews 13:12-14. Jesus suffered outside the camp. If we are to be with Him we must meet him outside the camp, in our context the camp is the world, and anyone outside the camp must be prepared to suffer. We must go outside of this city because it is not a lasting city. Piper said “Don’t live for this. It’s coming down and only what’s done for Christ will survive that fire!”

Piper closed by asking us “What’s outside the camp for you?” Be counted in the number of those outside the camp. To be outside the camp is to be with Christ.

Let there be a radical flavor to my life and my ministry. Let’s go outside the camp to meet Him!

God bless,
Pastor Duane

T4G 2008: Session 6

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville delivered the message for Session 6. He followed Sproul’s moving message by asking the question why do men so hate the doctrine of the substitutonary atonement? He illustrated from history how scholars and teachers have sought to deny or explain away this crucial doctrine.

His message was more seminary level lecture than sermon but was very informative. It is nearly impossible to summarize his address without taking up a tremendous amount of space on this page so if you want to know more you will be able to listen to the audio when it is released.

I will say that as I sat there I was greatly saddened as I listened to Mohler quote scholar after scholar in evangelical circles attack this doctrine. I was also deeply saddened to consider the fact that there are many within the church still being influenced by these men.

All in all it was good to be reminded again of how crucial and critical this doctrine is.

God bless,
Pastor Duane

T4G 2008: Session 5

R. C. Sproul delivered the message in Session 5 and to be honest I planned to take notes but was so overwhelmed and moved by his message that I could not write. His message was bar none the most powerful message I have ever heard anywhere at any time in my life. The title of his message was the “The Curse Motif of the Atonement.”

The theme of his message was the curse of God that Christ suffered on the cross as the Father turned His back on the Son. He took us to the Old Testament explaining the role of the scapegoat in relationship to Christ. The sins of the people were placed on the scapegoat and it was run out of the camp (cursed). Sproul paralleled this with Christ’s death outside the camp (the city of Jerusalem). He stressed the horrifying reality of what it meant for Christ, not simply “be” cursed but to be “made” a curse for us.

I cannot begin to summarize this sermon. To be there in the room with 5,500 men as it was delivered was an experience in itself. It was completely silent and you could literally feel the emotion in the room as we considered the sacrifice of our Lord.

God bless,
Pastor Duane

T4G 2008: Session 4

Dr. Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, delivered the Session 4 on Wednesday. His message was entitled “Exercises in Unbiblical Theology” and centered upon the dangers of attempting to “improve” upon the gospel with extrabiblical philosophies and methods. He did this by sharing 5 cries arising within the church today that are threatening the gospel.

    1. Make the gospel public. This philosophy places social change and improvement of social structures as a core component of the gospel. We see this today with the joining of Evangelicalism and the political sphere today. Dever stated that “nothing any less cataclysmic than the return of Christ will bring His reign to this earth.”

    2. Make the gospel larger. Dever made a great point here, especially in light of the claims of those holding to a “social gospel.” He said that the people who plead with us to make the gospel larger are confusing the implications of the gospel with the gospel. In other words they claim that caring for the poor and the outcast is not “part” of the gospel but rather these are implications of the gospel. He used 1 Thessalonians 2:8 to explain that the gospel and our lifestyle of service are two distinct things. In other words it is completely possible to preach the gospel apart from sharing one’s life. He also made it clear that the Christian worldview is great but it is not the gospel.

    3. Make the gospel relevant. Dever wasted no time in proclaiming that evangelism unmoored from Scriptural doctrine leads to liberalism. History proves this out time and time again. He warned that clever methods focus people’s attention on clever leaders. This goes against all that Paul stressed in 1 Corinthians 1 & 2. Dever said the question we should ask when it comes to contextualizing the gospel is “Has this contextualization made the offense of the gospel clearer?”

    4. Make the gospel personal. There is an attempt today to separate the gospel from the local body. If you have ever read Dever’s books n the church you know this is a point he makes often. He said that our participation within the body “normally” confirms or falsifies our claim to be partakers in the gospel. That is a bold statement but true. For further elaboration I would recommend his book “9 Marks of a
Healthy Church.” One who has been affected by the true gospel will be immersed in the local church.

    5. Make the gospel kinder. The danger here is seeking to justify the character of God to a sinful world. While this will shock many Christians Dever states that God is not about concerned about the most souls saved but bringing the greatest glory to Himself. We know from Exodus and Romans 9-11. God does what he does to show the truth about who He is.

He closed with this exhortation; “Do not try to improve the gospel or you’ll end up losing the gospel.”

God bless,
Pastor Duane