Sin and the Gospel.

The closer we get to the easter season the more I am thankful for the amazing grace and love shown to me by my Savior. In our Wednesday Night Bible Study at the Church we have been discussing sin and God’s redemption a lot.

I grew up in the Church and whenever we talked about sin it was usually emphatically told to me “Don’t do it!” “Blake are you sinning? Stop it, because God doesn’t like that!” The idea behind this is ok, it can help people stop doing the wrong thing, but it doesn’t get to the root of the issue. It doesn’t tell me why sin is wrong? Why God doesn’t like it when we sin?

One of my favorite writers A. W. Tozer said, “the most important thing about you is what you believe God is like.” I grew up seeing him as a mean old man who was just waiting for me to mess up and when I did he would punish me. I don’t believe this is the way Jesus wants us to live our lives. He wants to offer us life, hope, peace, and joy. That doesn’t come from this feeling bad about our sinfulness life we have raised up in the Church. We short-change the Gospel when we make it just about not doing the wrong things to avoid God’s punishment. 

I heard it explained something like this one time: imagine you came to me and asked me for directions to Chicago. If I responded to you with “don’t go to Texas” that wouldn’t help you out very much. I could say well I saved them a lot of heartache and pain by telling you not to go to Texas, but that really doesn’t help you get to Chicago. This is what we have done for so long in the Church. “Don’t do that (insert sin here), or you will be punished.” Why?

I think in churches today, we have put Jesus’ teachings into a Pharisee-like list of do’s and don’t’s and have completely lost the real meaning and purpose of Jesus’ heart. You see Jesus desires us to not sin, because he wants to show you the greatness of life with Him. It isn’t about just not doing the bad thing, but doing the good thing because it makes more sense. The entire story of Scripture is about God creating a perfect world, then man sins, and God desiring to restore it to perfection again. We desire, like Jesus, a world where sin doesn’t even exist anymore. P.S. this day comes: see Revelation 21 and 22. The life change because of the gospel is doing the good things because we see the world like Jesus sees the world. We are so close to Him that we love like Him.

Jesus invites us to learn to be like Him, to be close to Him. He lived the life we should live, and He died the death we should die. Did you ever notice that in every “no” teaching of Jesus there is an invitation to live a bigger, better, fuller life? Every time there is judgment or destruction in Scripture there is also salvation. God’s heart is always one of forgiveness before condemnation.

So as we get closer to Easter, look to Jesus. Point your life in His direction. Not just because of the consequences for what happens if we don’t, but because of the goodness that comes when we do.

~Blake

5 Things That Make a Preacher “Good”

I had a friend tell a visitor to our church Sunday that if you came down to Noble, you would get to hear a sermon by a “good preacher.” I by no means think I am a good preacher, but I do recognize that God has given me the ability to communicate His message with people. So, I got to thinking about this idea of a “good” preacher, and wanted to share some thoughts with you about what I think makes a preacher a good one.

1. A “Good” Preacher always points to Jesus. This probably makes sense to be first, because He is the reason we preach in the first place. If my message doesn’t point my listeners to Jesus, I have failed. 2 Corinthians 4:5 is a verse that Haddon Robinson (definitely a great preacher) used with his autograph on one of my books, when I had the pleasure of meeting him. That verse says “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.”

2. A “Good” Preacher always points to Scripture. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16) This book that we have should be where your listeners turn in every moment of their lives. A good preacher, I like to say, is like Vanna White, just pointing to the letters. We have to get out of the way of the message sometimes. If you never mention the Bible in your message, I will say this “You are not a Good Preacher.” Period.

3. A “Good” Preacher always points to Prayer. The fact that we are able to communicate with the God who gave us the Bible and created us, is so overlooked by many people. We have the opportunity to do that every moment of every day. I love to listen to sermons that just smell like prayer. You can tell the preacher spent time praying and it calls the listeners to pray more in their lives.

4. A “Good” Preacher always points to Sin. This one sounds a little strange in some ways, but it makes sense in my mind. People see the sin in their lives and they recognize they need to make a change. A good preacher in my mind makes people come face to face with their sin. I think about the Prophet Nathan after David has committed adultery and murder, and he brings David to his knees because of the sin in his life. We need that some times. There are many preachers around today that never mention sin and the effect it has on people’s lives, to me that is missing a lof of the message.

5. A “Good” Preacher always points to Hope. The people listening to your message, need to know that their is hope for them. They need to hear the message that says, you don’t have to stay lost in your sin…you can go home. There is a Father who still cares about you, and a “good” preacher reminds us of that every week.

Well…that is my list of 5. What do you think? What makes a preacher “good”?

~Blake