The Gospel Sword & Battle Prayer

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"The Gospel Sword and Battle Prayer"
Part 6 of 6 - The Armor of God
Ephesians 6:17-20
September 9th, 2012
South Suburban Christian Church

Reflections on Waiting

Today is a day of waiting. I don’t like waiting.

In fact, I don’t think any of us like waiting very much. Just look around next time you are in line at the supermarket and observe how uncomfortable people are with waiting… incessantly checking their smart phones, fidgeting with items in their cart, glancing at pointless magazines.

Right now I am in a season of waiting. I finished seminary in May and enjoyed a nice summer of relaxing and visiting friends and family. Now I am waiting for the right opportunity to serve in pastoral ministry. It is certainly not an idle waiting, but waiting nonetheless. Did I mention I don’t like waiting? There are certainly more job boards to check, contacts to be made, emails to be sent, and lines of the resume and cover letter that could be tweaked. But today I pause for a moment to reflect on waiting.

Sometimes I wonder why it seems that we have to wait on God so much. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful and present everywhere, then it seems that He should be busy all the time and we should never feel bored because we are constantly trying to keep up with Him. Deep down I know that he is always acting redemptively in the world, and that he never slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4), but even in that he sometimes calls his people to a time of waiting. I think of the Israelites wondering in the wilderness for an entire generation, waiting for God to act on their behalf. I think of Israel waiting for hundreds of years of (relative) prophetic silence for the arrival of Messiah. I think of the disciples waiting for three long days, wondering what went wrong.

Throughout the Scriptures, the people of God have been called to seasons of waiting. I take comfort in the fact that many of them engaged that calling as poorly as I am. They wavered in their trust in God. They acted impulsively because they tried to take matters into their own hands. They struggled to find joy and were restless and discontent. I am like those people; I am one of those people.

The good news is that God is faithful even when his people are not. God has demonstrated his faithfulness time and time again. He is at work in the world and he is at work in my life. Again I resonate with a line from Scripture, “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief!” (Mk. 9:24)

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

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This sermon was delivered at South Suburban Christian Church (Littleton, CO) on July 29, 2012.

"The Parable of the Wedding Banquet"
Kingdom Theology According to the Parable
Matthew 22:1-14

Morning Prayer

O LORD GOD,

Teach me to know that grace precedes, accompanies,

and follows my salvation,

that it sustains the redeemed soul,

that not one link of its chain can ever break.

From Calvary's cross wave upon wave of grace

reaches me,

deals with my sin,

washes me clean,

renews my heart,

strengthens my will,

draws out my affection,

kindles a flame in my soul,

rules throughout my inner man,

consecrates my every thought, word, work,

teaches me thy immeasurable love.

from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers

Change is Hard!

Let's just be honest: change is hard! I am increasingly more aware of this reality as graduation approaches and the unknown future looms beyond. We all like our routines...we like it when things go as expected...we like the familiar...and we like to be right. We don't like to admit that we are wrong...that we have a deficiency...a flaw in our character...a need for change. Even those of us who like change have to admit that there is a limit to how much change we can take at once and the kind of change we enjoy. If we like change, it is usually for the sake of novelty and not the difficult and lasting kind of change we really need. We like to mix it up at Starbucks, or rearrange the living room, but our affinity or aversion to this kind of change is often related to personality and temperament. That is not the kind of change I am talking about.  The truth is that God is not done with you yet (no matter the length or depth of your Christian maturity) and that is a good thing.

In one sense, we might say that change defines the essence of life in Christ. You and I were made for change, we were made for spiritual transformation. Here a few examples from Scripture:

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom. 8:29, NIV). "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Rom. 12:1-2, NIV). "And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, NIV).

I think one of the greatest hindrances to experiencing the fullness of life in Christ is our resistance to change. Let us be clear about one thing: this is not a message about doing more and trying harder. We cannot change ourselves through hard work and extra effort. Sanctification is completely a work of God based upon his holiness (1 Thess. 5:23; Eph. 4:22-24). Yet Scripture consistently exhorts us to abide in Christ (John 15), renew our mind (Rom. 12:1-2), resist the flesh and put on the new self  (Col. 3:5-11). We do not engage this process to become "better" Christians, but so that we can experience the fullness of life in Christ. This is what it means to enter or receive the kingdom of God and live under the reign of the lordship of Christ. Sometimes this spiritual transformation occurs in dramatic fashion over short periods of time, but often it looks more like A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (book by Eugene Peterson). Change is hard, but it is what we were made for. 

From Grounded in the Gospel

"Evangelicals have long acted as though the Gospel was the right 'medicine' for unbelievers, but that believers need to move beyond the Gospel and go on to other things, a movement from the 'milk' to the 'meat.' But this seems untrue- thoroughly out of step with the biblical witness. We believer, rather, that it is imperative to think of moving on from the 'milk' of the Gospel to the 'meat' of the Gospel. For in fact the Gospel is more profound and multifaceted than our finite minds can ever grasp. We never move on from the Gospel; we move on in the Gospel."

From Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way

by J.I. Packer & Gary Parrett

Amen and Amen!